Idha Etu Yama
by Agwen
Summary: On the day she manages to flee her village, Mai meets a rude boy who informs her of this thing called 'Magic'. Hiatus.
1. Chapter 1: Isolated

**Preface: A letter to the reader**

Dear reader,

Thank you for your interest in reading _Idha Etu Yama_. It will be a tale that mixes the genres of mystery, humour, crime and bitter-sweet romance in a fantasy world.

The setting comes from Kubera, which is a fascinating fusion fantasy webtoon with great world-building and a complex plot. _Kubera_ is an ongoing Korean webtoon that is being translated on the website Batoto. Reading the webtoon will not necessary, because I will try to explain certain concepts along the way by explaining it in the story itself or by using end notes.

The main cast will consist of the Ghost Hunt characters, but a few characters from the following mystery, supernatural and horror series will appear as well: Psychic Detective Yakumo, Supernatural Investigation Department and Another.

To readers of Kubera: Seeing as Kubera is ongoing and much of the world has not been revealed at the time I brewed up this story, some liberties will be inevitably taken to accommodate the lack of information. Another example: For some reasons Idha Etu Yama will not take place Willarv, but in Isholy. The problem is, we know nothing about Isholy other than that it's the place where Shuri lived with Yuta. See where I'm going? Though I do want to make sure it will be as accurate as possible, so you may want to consider this as an Kubera AU version.

Anyway, I hope you will enjoy the story!

Best regards,

Agwen

**Disclaimer:** The world of Kubera comes from Currygom, the mastermind of world-building, and any characters from the above mentioned series do not belong to me.

* * *

**Idha Etu Yama**

**Chapter 1: Isolated**

Mai pulled open the door of her little house in the small village. There were only twenty of them living in the unnamed village. In fact, according to Keiko you could barely call their community a village. Mai was told that about six months ago. She was never allowed out of the village and barely knew anything about the outside world as she could confirm through what her closest friends told her.

The village was one thing, but the creatures that roamed around it were another. That was apparently the reason she could not step outside the village as she would be dangered by them. They called those creatures 'Sura'. Creatures in all forms and sizes that would seek after prey. Often they ate other Sura, and it was not unheard of that they would attack humans. Her other friend Michiru told her again and again that a normal human like Mai would not stand a chance against those Sura. Michiru's family was in charge of fending off those Sura, as they were the strongest in the village. Michiru, Keiko, their families and the others cared for Mai like they would treat a little child. Vulnerable and breakable. She was told that she had no means of fighting Sura.

In her younger days she didn't care much about it, but now that she was sixteen she couldn't help but be partly guilty and partly annoyed. Guilty, because it seemed as if she was leeching off their hard labour. Annoyed, because she was bored and wanted to get out of the village. She was more annoyed than guilty, because she wasn't given any answers. The following conversation was yet another proof of the silence.

"Why can't I get outside the village? I know there are other folks out there," she said.

Keiko remained silent and looked down.

"Why didn't you allow me talk to your uncle?" Mai asked her other friend. Her uncle was one of the rare visitors from outside the village, who visited them last week. As it turned out, Mai wasn't allowed to show herself in front of him.

Michiru shook her head. "You shouldn't talk to anyone outside of us. There's a chance they might not like you."

Mai frowned.

"I'm sorry, Mai," Keiko said with tears in her eyes, "We can't say. It's our fault, all our fault."

Mai sighed. There, they said it again. What was their fault? She knew that they wouldn't spill anything to her. She didn't dare to prod any more as she knew Keiko would start to cry. Her parents would scold Mai.

"All we can do is protect you," Michiru pleaded, "So please, Mai. I know you're angry, but bear with it. Until it's time."

"When, Michiru? When?"

She shook her head. Michiru's brown furry ears on top of her head smoothed down a little. If Mai couldn't tell it from her face, she knew from her ears that she was feeling down.

"Fine," Mai said, who was obviously displeased with the situation, "I'm sorry to bother you guys."

Keiko moved away to the door without saying anything, revealing her short tail as she walked out. Michiru followed her out.

That was what happened yesterday. She hadn't spoken to anyone else every since. The whole evening and morning she had made plans to leave the village behind and prepare herself for the unknown. Mai currently had no family of around, but had been bequeathed a family weapon by her parents who passed away when she was little.

Recently, Mai had begun to have doubts about the reason behind their death. When she was little she was told that they died due to some sickness, but after she turned ten they told her that they had died during a Sura attack. It wasn't just that. A little by little they started to say all kinds of conflicting things about her parents, the Sura and the outside world. What she knew about life so far may not have been entirely correct. Also, Mai saw through their body language and the tone in their voice told something else. Fear.

Speaking of bodies. If there was one thing that set Mai apart from the other villagers it would have to be that she had no animal traits. Michiru had ears like a cat and her hands looked more like a big paws. Keiko had a short puffy tail and, small grey horns on her head and hoofs instead of feet. All the villagers except for herself were so-called 'Halfs'. It meant that they had at least 50% Sura blood and the remaining blood was human. At first it was rather difficult for Mai to understand, but it seemed that certain Sura could transform into human form. Thus humans and Sura could have children together. Those children, Halfs, were much stronger than humans, but not as strong as a normal Sura. Another difference was that Halfs live longer and age slower than humans. Although Mai and her friends looked to be about the same age, Keiko and Michiru were in fact around 65 years old. In another 30 years, Mai would look middle-aged, while her friends still retained their youthful appearance as adolescents.

It was early in the morning and still very dark. Mai decided it was time to go. With a dagger in her hand and a string bag she knitted herself, containing the essentials, she sneaked out as quietly as possible. As soon as she was out of hearing range she started to walk as fast as she could. To make sure they couldn't track her by scent (both Michiru and her mother were able to find her at her previous runaways due to their strong sense of smell), Mai used the scented flowers she'd found on the way as perfume for her body to throw them off track. This had to be enough, she thought, but to make sure they wouldn't find her she did it several times again.

She'd even managed to hide from several Sura that roamed around and even if she was seen, they didn't seem very interested in her small body. Mai was terrified for a moment, but it seemed she was in luck. Why would they eat something small as her when they had other Sura around anyway? Mai wasn't exactly what she would call filling for a Sura's stomach. When a Sura seemed hostile to her, she managed to flee by running as fast as she could.

Hours had passed and now it seemed to be late in the morning. Mai knelt down in exhaustion and gasped for air. She wasn't used to exerting herself like that, so she stopped to take a rest and eat the berries and digestible plants she collected on the way. The sound of water was at her left side, where the forest started to clear up. Mai was very thirsty. A long trail of water flowed gently along the grass. She stepped out of the bushes and stared at it wide-eyed. It looked very peaceful. Mai ate the berries and walked to the flowing water.

She drank from the water and felt refreshed.

"Haah... Is this what they call a river?" She wondered to herself.

"Yes."

She yelped and turned around quickly to see the source of the voice. Somehow she fell down in the process and stared up at a much taller man with short black hair and dressed in black. Mai squinted as she couldn't see his face clearly due to the sun behind him. Where in the world did he suddenly come from? She hadn't noticed him at all.

"Who're you?"

He didn't even answer her question. "What kind of fool doesn't know what a river is?"

"I'm not a fool!" She jumped up in anger, which made him back away a step. "I've never seen it before!"

Then she saw his face clearly. A sharp face with blue eyes that flattered his looks. He was rather tall, so she still had to look up to him. The boy observed Mai for a while, before he closed his eyes and sighed as if contemplating, then abruptly shoved her aside to continue whatever he was doing. Mai was very startled at that behaviour. No one ever did that to her. The people in her village were always considerate to her, almost too much, but this was something she could not accept.

"You're crazy," he said, walking away, "Also, I know I am handsome, but could you not get into my private space."

Mai turned red. Indeed she was a little bit too much in his 'private space' and she would admit that he was 'handsome', but then again he was awfully rude for calling her a fool... and now crazy as well!? The first stranger she met turned out to be a very rude narcissist. She always imagined what the first person she met outside the village would be like, and he or she definitely was not like this guy.

"Also, you reek of perfume. Is that really needed? Is that your only attractive point? Are you one of those girls that..."

"Well, excuse me, but I had no choice," she cut him off, because she was annoyed at the insults and stupid questions. This was her way of containing her anger to herself. To her surprise the boy turned around with a shocked face at her answer. Mai held her breath. Did she say something wrong? He looked away again as if embarrassed.

"I see... Aren't you cold in that?"

Mai wore a self-made skirt and a green t-shirt that Michiru gave her. It was indeed too little to cover up.

"Now that you mention it. A little... It must be the wind," she said, and made an attempt to be nice, "My name is Mai, what's yours?"

"I'm not going to tell my name to somebody I just met. Also, if you're intent on providing me your services, I assure you I'm not interested."

He proceeded to walk away.

Huh, what?

"I have no idea what you're talking about..." Mai said while following after him, but he ignored her. "Hey wait up, why are you leaving me behind? It's dangerous here."

The boy stopped. "I don't need protection. I'm absolutely capable of defending myself... I assume you are too."

"Well, I have a dagger with me," she replied and showed it to him. He didn't look very pleased and even seemed disgusted for a moment. The boy regained his composure quickly.

"But you don't look like a warrior. Aren't you a magician?" The young man said slowly.

"I'm neither?" Mai wasn't exactly sure what he was talking about. He stared at her with a deep frown. It looked as if he was getting curiouser about the girl.

"How did you survive in this forest up till now? One hour or more can be fatal to a human unless you are a capable warrior or magician."

"Luck?" Mai tried with a stupid smile on her face.

"So you're a Quarter? Not a human?"

"I'm human."

"You're _not_ a magician?"

"Why do you keep asking me that? I don't even know what a magician is!"

The young man went wide-eyed at that proclamation, then caressed his chin for a while with his long fingers.

"All the stupid must collected in this place," he whispered to himself, but loud enough for her to understand. Mai burst out in anger at his so-called explanation.

"Hey! You're going too far now!"

He stopped and gave her a glare.

"I really don't understand you..." he said. "You've never seen a river, and you reek of perfume. You're a little girl who comes out of this forest filled with monsters and carry around that bloody dagger, but you don't look like you could even beat a low-level Sura with it. You're obviously not a Half and not even a Quarter. At the very least you should be a magician, but you claim not to even know what it is. That is _stupidity_ in itself."

Mai was speechless and clasped her fingers at Michiru's old shirt. She was already missing her and Keiko. The village. Nobody ever told her she was stupid. Nobody was ever this rude to her. Actually, everyone in the village was so nice to her... and this guy didn't even try.

"I... I'm sorry," she said.

"Why are you apologizing to me?"

"I wasn't talking to you!" Mai yelled with tears in her eyes.

The boy didn't seem to know what to say.

"I... I'm going home. This was a stupid idea, I should have never run away."

Mai took off into the direction of the forest. If there were something that the village protected her from, then certainly it had to be jerks like him. She was so sorry to Michiru and Keiko for running away, and felt like a terrible friend.

"Wait! What did you just say?"

The boy grabbed her sleeve.

"Leave me alone!" she yelled back, but found the young man looking at her with a terrified face. "...what?"

"...whose shirt is this?" he slowly asked.

"Why do you want to know?"

"...that person died hours ago," he said with a dark expression.

Michiru.

"Don't go," he said. He held her back with her arms as she tried to struggle back.

"N-no."

He didn't let go, and she felt threatened by his strong arms keeping her back. After a while Mai's arm broke free, and pulled the dagger out of the string bag as fast as she could and stabbed without looking at where she hit him.

"Gah!"

She looked back and saw what she did. The young man fell down to his knees in pain. The dagger was thrust into his side. Blood streamed down.

"...no... no no. What did I..."

"Whatever you do... don't go, please don't go..." he begged.

Mai was horrified. She couldn't leave him behind like this, but what he just said about Michiru. Her stomach turned at the thought. Keiko. Everyone else, were they all right? They might be in danger. A Sura must have attacked them. After all, this guy said this forest had very dangerous Sura. She had to go. Mai was sorry that she did this. Even a rude guy like him didn't deserve this. However, she had to go.

"Please..." he said again, and then cringing again.

"I'm sorry. I can't."

I shouldn't have done that, she also meant to say. Mai took one last look at him, pulled the dagger out of his side, then ran as if her life depended on it.

He bit his lips in concentration, then said: "_Hoti Brahma_!"

The girl bumped into a pink wall that suddenly appeared before she could re-enter the forest.

"What is this...?"

Mai looked around and found herself completely isolated by a barrier. Did _he_ do that? She pushed and rammed against it, but it was no use. However, she could easily cut through the barrier with the dagger and made herself a hole she could fit through. He couldn't look more surprised when she managed to cut through the barrier.

"Mai!"

She was already out of his sight. Too late to do anything.

"...you shouldn't go. They're not worth it. Your parents, they..."

He lost his consciousness.

A man with red eyes watched from across the river. He had hid behind a tree with another woman accompanying him. With interest they had looked at how the girl had cut through the spell the magician had cast. A weapon that was able to cancel out magic of a Primeval God was a rarity.

"Good. That magician is out of the way," he sounded very pleased, and said to the woman, "Trap the girl, get rid of her and bring me the weapon."

"Very well, Unkai-nim."


	2. Chapter 2: The Hunt

**Chapter 2: The Hunt**

Mai ran as if her life depended on it. Tripping over stones or being hit by tree stalks didn't matter to her, as long as she got back to her village. She was tired, but worried enough to ignore her body's lack of energy. The boy's words scared her all the more, even if she didn't trust him completely. Maybe nothing happened, but then again the world outside her village seemed not to be one where she belonged. The world was the dangerous and cruel thing the villagers were protecting from her. However, thoughts like that started to crumble and to fade when Mai realized that she didn't know how to head back. She got lost and there was nothing to do about it. She didn't recognize how to get back to where she originally come from. Now she was standing somewhere in the middle of nowhere with nothing to go off to. The trees were high enough that she couldn't see the mountain properly.

This was pathetic. Her plan was in shambles. She couldn't even call it much of a plan as there was no concrete points to go by. She went for hours without meeting anyone, and the first person she could have asked about the nearest settlement probably lay dying on a river bank because of her irrational panic.

"Stupid Mai," she said to herself. "You were so determined to get away and now, look what you have done."

Mai shook her head. No, she shouldn't give up. She could climb the tree and hope no Sura saw her. When she was about to approach a tree she heard the breaking of branches.

"Hello little girl."

Mai turned around when she heard those words spoken by a female. A woman with blonde straight hair in a high ponytail stepped out of the shadows of a tree. Her eyes were covered by a pair of rose-coloured sunglasses and her mouth carried an eerie smile. Behind the tree was a corpse of a Sura

"I know what you are looking for," she spoke.

In an instant Mai lost sight of the woman and felt her presence creeping up from behind.

Then nothing.

The next thing Mai knew was a painful throbbing on the back of her head before she could open her eyes and the smell her nose caught. The overwhelming smell of blood and smoke. Her eyes went wide open, and drew shut immediately at the stingy air. Mai opened her eyes slightly to find out where she was. She was back in the village in front of the very place she lived in, but it was absolutely nothing like she remembered. The house she once inhabited had been reduced to burning ember. The house opposite hers had been torn down with traces of blood in the doorway.

She feared for Keiko.

Her arms were bound on her back with a rope of sorts. Mai tried to get up on her feet, but she felt someone grip her arm. It was that woman.

"I was waiting for you to wake up."

"Let go!"

The woman was far stronger than her and Mai couldn't manage to get away. Her arm hurt at the strength of the grip, which was frighteningly similar to the way Michiru's mother would pull her around when she was being a bad child.

"So this is where you were held captive... How do you like the place now?" The woman smiled as she dragged the girl along.

"What did you do to them?" Mai demanded with a glare.

"I did nothing of this sort. I left that up to those guys over there," she said and Mai growled.

She reacted by forcefully dragging Mai, who could barely stand on her feet, to what was once called the communal square. The usually empty place was now littered with giant bones. Five men stood around a pile of something - she couldn't see clearly through the smoke - and were happily conversing about the things they had found... and caught.

"Look, this one has Garuda eyes. What do you think?"

"Hmm, doesn't look bad... we could sell that for 1500 gold coins. Look at that tail..." Another man said, pointing at something in the pile.

"The Kinnara horns of this Half... Oh!" A blonde man noticed them. "Nanase-ssi..."

He walked over.

"I brought the girl that escaped, but I don't think she's useful to you," the woman said.

The man with long blonde locks stared at Mai with piercing bright yellow eyes, and they looked like they didn't mean any good for her.

"A human girl... So it was for nothing."

"I did find what I was looking for," Nanase replied with a not so friendly smile.

"I see... so I suppose our cooperation has borne its fruits," he said, smirking, then turned to Mai. "I suppose you want some explanation. We noticed you running around in this forest and we thought you were a Half. It was better to catch a whole village, than chase after a single Half, so the group split up - we followed your footsteps back to the village."

Mai's heart couldn't sink even more when she heard that. Footsteps.

He showed what was in her hands and winked at both women. "Look now. These are the horns of a girl your age and in very good condition. I can get a lot of money for this."

The woman called Nanase didn't react due to lack of interest, but Mai's eyes stared at the horns incredulously.

"Ke-Keiko's horns. Why-"

The man stared at her pitifully. "Well, well... from the way you're reacting it seems you've been taken good care of. You were wrong, Nanase-ssi."

Nanase's face grimaced a little and gave Mai a hard shake.

"Gah!"

Mai fell down on her knees. Her arm hurt badly. She might have broken something.

"I'm jealous of you, little girl..." She whispered in Mai's ear, now pulling her t-shirt. "Want to have a look at those friends of yours?"

Mai didn't react, so she was dragged again - her legs had given in much earlier.

Nanase and Mai coughed as they got closer. The nearer they were, the more she saw of what had become of the villagers. The loot was collected in a box. Paws. Tails. Horns. Bones. Hoofs. More than she was willing to recognize, therefore she stopped looking at the box, and stared at the source of the heat. Behind the box was a burning pile of bodies. A head that vaguely resembled Michiru's lied on the side. A single upper-arm cut off from the body. More heads. Dismembered legs.

At last Mai cried and the only question that ran through her head was 'why?'. Why?

"She's a human, but it's too bad... she has seen us, so we can't leave her alive," the man said, standing behind them, "We're getting ready to leave this area... you will know where to find us."

"Yes, the fire will attract their attention..." Nanase said, and then dumped Mai on the ground. The girl looked forlorn. "Do you realise now? They were not protecting you from the world. No, they were protecting themselves! You look young, so you might not know, but the Halfs once took away what was precious to humans... and this is how they are being punished. "

Mai stared at her with uncomprehending eyes and shivered from every word she said.

"It's your fault. If you hadn't escaped, they wouldn't have died," Nanase said, "Do you side with them or not?"

The man looked on with a pleased smile.

"I... I don't know," Mai said softly and tried to think, but couldn't come up with a good answer. "I really don't know... They were nice, but the humans I met today were rude, cruel and didn't have any good in them. I abandoned my friends and let them die... so does that make me a human?"

Then the man became furious at her answer.

"That's nonsense! The ones who abandoned their friends and killed them are the Halfs!" He raged at her, and then yelled at the woman. "Kill her!"

"Stop yelling, it's annoying," Nanase said, and pulled out a weapon.

Mai recognized it. Her dagger. The family weapon.

"Little girl. Normally I would have killed you with magic or even my bare hands, but you do not deserve any of that," Nanase said, as if she was trying to be nice. "Rest assured. I will give you a quick and painless death. You will see your friends soon."

She held out the dagger and began to launch it against Mai's throat.

"_Hoti Indra_!" A young man's voice yelled behind her back.

A thundering sound was heard. Shit! It was too late, Nanase thought. A lightening struck her and she dropped the dagger.

"Ugh... what the hell?" The man said.

The girl was nowhere to be found. The blonde man she called Somos was similarly hit by the lightening and found cringing on the ground. Nanase realised that the one who had taken the girl was possibly using a fusion spell to hide their presence. This was annoying. The dagger was gone too. Just her luck.

Mai found herself in someone's arms. Blue eyes stared at her.

"Are you okay?"

It was him. The boy came back for her and he carried the dagger. Her arms were freed from the rope.

"I.. I should be the one saying that!" She pointed at the dagger.

The boy looked surprised. "I'm fine... see?"

He pointed at his chest.

"But that's not where I..."

"No time for idle talk," he said, regaining focus on their current situation. They had fled behind a shed near Mai's house, or what was left of it, and he had made their presence invisible to Nanase and the man. "Well, it looks like we're safe for now, but a Hoti Vayu won't help us here... I have no idea where we are and that mountain over there seems most inconvenient to teleport to."

"I don't understand!"

Mai clasped her hands against her mouth. The boy smiled and she just stared at him in unbelief. Was it just her or did he get a whole lot nicer?

"They won't hear us. I used Hoti Chandra, but I guess the lightening bolt covered my voice," he said, interrupting her thoughts.

"What?"

"The magic wears off if you go outside the boundaries. It means we need to get rid of them first," the boy said, "You're not a magician, so leave it to me. I will act as a bait and will try to make sure they don't find you. Hide behind the shed first."

Mai dropped her jaw. He's actually nice to her. Did he hit his head after she stabbed him?

The boy murmured to himself. "The best way to do this... Ah, I know. Another special entry! ..._Bhavati Kubera_!"

He was gone, but before that she certainly heard him whispering something else.

"Hey! Over here!"

They looked up. There was the culprit. A young man entirely dressed in black flew over the village at leisure.

Nanase and the man searched for any sight of the girl. Nothing.

"I can spam as many Hoti Chandra's as I like. You won't find her," he yelled at the two.

Somos whined something, but Nanase crossed her arms.

"Impressive...! Not many are capable of such a feat. Though, you're wrong... it means that she's still here. ...and I suppose I should say thanks for revealing one of your attributes," Nanase said, "But for your sake I should say there's a limit to spamming!"

Nanase yelled similar spell: "_Bhavati Kubera_!'

The boy looked rather surprised when she flew up to him, and smiled.

"Hm... How very amusing."

"Well, how about an aerial battle...! Whoever wins gets the girl."

"Deal."

"Nanase-ssi! Damnit, don't leave me out of this!"

The man yelled at her, but the two didn't even hear her for they were caught up in a wrestling match. This was one of those times that he hated his attributes, but then he realised he had used up all of his chances on the Halfs he had killed. Somos suddenly remembered his other companions. Where were his men off to? That boy couldn't have taken them down, he thought. Mai looked on in awe. So this was magic. She had never seen anyone other than Garuda Sura fly, and it just looked amazing. They only had to say those words. Unfortunately for Mai and the boy, it looked like Nanase was overpowering him. He managed to push her off at last, gasping.

"Hey pretty boy, you're pretty good at wrestling, but you'll never be as good as me."

"It's my first time wrestling with a lady in the air. Cut me some slack," he smiled rather seductively. "I'm just a human and it looks like you're a quarter."

"Oh, is that so?" Nanase replied, apparently missing his flirtation, "But is that all you have? Surely not."

"Heh."

Mai stared at them. They weren't fighting any more and just hovered in the air. Both spectators waited impatiently.

"Oh come on!" The man yelled. "Just kill that guy!"

Nanase rolled her eyes and sighed. The boy smiled at her again.

"What are you waiting for? You could have struck me down any time," Nanase said, "Are you buying time?"

He's must be playing around, Mai thought.

"Hmm, I'm not pushy like that guy over there... You don't look like lovers, so why do you keep him around?" he said in defence, and shrugged.

"Wha-What is he doing? He couldn't be flirting with her...!" Mai said to herself as she brought a palm to her face.

Nanase scoffed at the thought of them being lovers.

"That's none of your business."

"Oh, could it be because of this God item?" He pulled out the dagger out of his coat. He had it, as Nanase correctly guessed. That was troublesome, but as long as it didn't hit her.

"One of Kali's daggers. After she disappeared, it was among the possessions she left behind... It's not as useful as the Sword of Re, but I guess you could say it does its job well. That is, nullifying spells at touch."

This time Nanase smirked at him. "Is that all?"

He lunged at her at full speed. Fast enough for her not to react. She was stronger than him, but his speed was unmatched. Pain spread through her body starting from where he had thrust the dagger, right below her heart. The only thing keeping her afloat was his arm around her waist. Completely immobilized, she was at her mercy and could only stare at his blue eyes.

"Ho-hoti Kubera," she said.

Nothing. Her body wasn't strengthened. His touch made her shiver. His harmless smile was scary. His whispers all the more.

"You're smart, strong and beautiful... Very wicked. Exactly my type, but that's not the reason I'm not going to keep you alive right now."

"...why?"

She kept struggling against, hating being humiliated like that.

"My father will scold me, so I'll make sure you'll go through a hell because of me."

Nanase shivered again. She was scared. She hated being trapped. Being imprisoned by these arms.

"Remember this," he whispered. "The name's Gene."

"Gene..." she repeated softly.

The next thing she knew, the boy took the dagger out of her body and sent her falling to the ground without any support left.

"_Bhavati Indra_," he finally summoned.

The boy watched as the whole area shocked every single being with a lightning. The man was completely knocked out and the woman remained unmoved. He made sure it was not too strong to kill, but it was enough to do damage. What was her name? Nanase? It was too bad they were enemies. He had taken a liking to her. She was so attractive... Oh well, there plenty of other girls to look out for.

Shit! He didn't think of the girl he had promised to protect.

Although Hoti Chandra protected her from being sensed, it didn't do the same thing with magic. Also,... Hoti Indra was rather specific and on target, while Bhavati Indra shocked everything around him. Including allies.

Gene looked behind the shed and confirmed he was a true idiot. A stupid and flashy idiot.

* * *

**A very short guide on common verbal spells from the Kubera world**

Humans are the weakest beings in the world and to give them a chance to defend themselves, the gods let the humans borrow a modified version of their powers. The gods are patron of certain months in a year, days in a month and hour in a day. Every human (Quarters included) can use _Hoti_ magic, but one can only cast _Bhavati_ magic that matches their birth attribute, which is determined by the month, the day and the hour of birth.

Gene has helpfully revealed his birth attributes so I will use his example: He was born in the 9th month (Indra), the 10th day (Kubera) and the 2nd hour (Chandra), therefore his birth attributes are Indra/Kubera/Chandra.

He can use all _Hoti_ Magic, but he can only use the _Bhavati_ magic of the gods Indra, Kubera and Chandra. He has little affinity with the other gods, and therefore cannot use their Bhavati magic.

In Gene's case, he can use Hoti magic of his birth attributes about three times a day, and a Bhavati spell only once per day. If he practices his magic a lot he could go beyond the limit. Through talent and sheer effort it is possible to nullify this handicap.

However, having a double or triple birth attribute is more advantageous. Not only you can use the spell more, but the power of the spells are multiplied.

(o)~(o)

**Author's notes**

With much magic and fanfare the second chapter has been concluded.

Yes, Nanase is the Nanase Miyuki from Psychic Detective Yakumo. She's a cool and twisted character. Also, Yakumo's dad appeared with her in the previous chapter. Yakumo himself will appear in the next chapter. As for Somos (not his actual name), he's one of the antagonists in Supernatural Investigation Department. Another character from SID, Tenka, will take the spotlight in the next chapter.

If all goes well this fic will be updated every Sunday, but right now I happen to have the drafts chapter 3 and 4 ready. This means I could post the next chapter earlier than usual (on Wednesday). Although I could just stay many chapters ahead and keep the steady weekly schedule. I haven't decided yet. What do you think? You can check my profile for the chapter progress.

Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3: Inflation

**Chapter 3: Inflation**

The village had been run down to the ground and the smell of burnt ashes tickled in their noses. If anything it didn't seem to have been a big fire, but if it were to be left alone a disaster could strike should the fire spread. The Sura Intelligence Department had been tipped by the magic guild's official Hirota about the smoke rising near one of the mountains. The members of SID were considered to be the best people to handle these kind of cases. A couple of low-level Sura here and there was no big deal. Tenka would slay them with his sword.

Their city was situated in a dale surrounded by a great forest and mountains and the forest was famous for containing a lot of Sura. Recently people he had heard rumours about Sura that cancelled out magic, bu this had yet to be proven by the City's magic guild. During the trip to the smoke's origin, the Sura Intelligence Department had never seen any of those unidentifiable black blobby Sura's, which Tenka noted after a couple of hours deeper in the forest.

"Just call them Chaos Clan Sura," his patron and colleague Si Mun had replied while rolling his eyes.

They were just rumours that came and went with the seasons, as their youngest colleague Baram informed them. He added that these rumours always popped up right before the end of the year, and was probably meant to scare off the children and non-magicians.

Tenka and Si Mun hadn't know about that. The boy was a local and the others had only lived here for less than a year.

Yes, it was the last week of the eleventh month. Rumours were bound to spread among the locals like gossip. Just some rumours, thank the god Visnu, Tenka thought.

The forest may contain a huge amount of Sura, but they were not always strong. Although there are always some idiots around who dared to enter the forest and promptly went missing. The most recent person to do that was a dumb no-name scientist who probably thought he could find some of those black blob Sura's. That researcher was not a quarter or even a magician with high scores. No, he was just a little above average. If he lasted over a day it would be considered a miracle. A week had passed and they'd still found nothing. They just gave up on the guy and returned to other issues in the city itself.

The Sura Intelligence Department consisted of three quarter magicians and a Half. In a group and independently they could get through this forest without problems. After all, this is where they trained when they were not on duty. Of course they were familiar with most of the terrain that was not near the mountain. If any problems arose in the forest, they were called.

Well, the first thing they found was near a river. They found some camping gear there and an unconscious male. To Tenka's surprise it was that dumbass researcher, who somehow turned out to be still alive and heavily wounded. They used a healing spell on the young man found, who was taken away to the City by their leader Sophia.

Stumbling through the forest while bickering, the trio continued their trip without their leader. It was unusual for Si Mun and Baram, the quarter magicians, to get even near to the mountain. Halfs had villages around the mountain with their defence fortified by the enormous amount of Suras dwelling in the woods. The code of conduct was not to let magicians know where they lived, otherwise they'd be hunted down and sold into slavery. Small fry human hunters wouldn't survive these kind of trips. Quarter magicians had a better chance, but then again Quarters were more likely to be pro-Half than normal humans. As a Half himself Tenka knew his way around and tried to avoid any Halfs that might be lurking around. If they knew he'd brought magicians, they'd lose their trust in him.

At last they had found the apparent place of the fire. A little village he never knew about was hit. In fact, he'd passed this place quite a few times and somehow he managed to miss this one. He couldn't blame it on himself. The village was situated very deep in the forest, hidden in the shadows of high trees, some houses were contained in cavities... an ideal place to hide in. For hunters this must have been a very difficult place to find, so he wondered how it was even discovered.

"Did somebody tip them off?" Baram asked.

"Tch, impossible," Tenka replied, pushing his sunglasses up his nose, "The Halfs keep mum about nearly everything. Likely, they followed a wandering Half to a village."

They surveyed the scale of the village's demise. On the open place a burnt pile of corpses and strewn limbs. The days in the Sura Intelligence Department did not pass without days like these. As usual the trio fell silent when it came to these situations. It didn't look like there were any survivors. From the smoke lingering around, the fire seemed to have stopped only as of a couple of minutes ago. The instigators have long left.

"Bah, they just never stop." Tenka said, he ran a hand through his wild red hair.

Si Mun nodded sadly, but Baram pointed to a shed.

"I think somebody's there," the boy said and walked over to where they saw a pair of feet sticking out behind the shed.

They followed Baram, a short and young boy with blue hair, and gasped at the sight. A girl lay sleeping on the ground with tears in her eyes.

"A human girl..?" Si Mun said, unbelieving, and started to inspect the girl's wounds.

"Sure looks like it," Tenka said.

"Did she live here?" Baram asked.

"A human in a Half village?" Tenka raised an eyebrow, "I can't believe that."

"She was shocked by a lightning and there are some traces of a fight, but she doesn't seem badly hurt. It's best to take her to the city's healing magic guild right away," Si Mun said, having examined her, and with a pensive expression he added, "She looks like she may have been born during or before the Cataclysm. Perhaps they kept her around as not to reveal their location. I don't know how she could have survived though. We should properly interview her after she's regained consciousness. Let me take her to the guild. Can you guys do a further inspection and make a proper report of this...?"

"Yeah, we'll do that," Tenka said, "Make sure you're not seen."

Si Mun nodded and put the girl on his back.

"Don't you mean that I have to make the report?" Baram glared at the red haired man. "Lazy old man."

"Look you little brat, stop calling me lazy-"

Si Mun gave him a very stern glare that sent a chill through Tenka's bones. It looked just as if he was about to strike him with a Hoti Indra spell. Tenka knew very well how painful Si Mun's lightnings were.

"We'll do it together," Tenka announced.

When Si Mun left with the girl, Baram suggested to split up and look around for clues. The boy wisely went into the other direction. Tenka could only find burnt houses and walked in a wide circle as he passed the pile of corpses. The burning and rotting smell tingled his sensitive nose.

"Yuck."

Then he noticed someone standing right next to it. A young man with black hair and fair skin, dressed in a white shirt and blue cotton pants stood there on his bare feet looking over the corpses. He wasn't there before when the three of them had looked around here. He noticed Tenka, but didn't move.

"Is this a criminal who returned to the crime scene?"

The young man's mouth didn't move. One of his eyes were blood red. The other was hidden by a patch of hair. Several black lines marked his face near his temple. Other serpentine features were visible on his limbs.

'I did not take part in this bloodshed.'

He had used telepathy. Upani 5th stage or Rakshasa 4th stage. Tenka could take on the first, but the latter would be far too difficult to handle. He readied himself for what was to come and his hand's grip on the sword's handle tightened.

'Don't stare at me like that. I won't fight you,' the Sura communicated.

"Well, that doesn't put me at ease," Tenka replied, with a strained smile.

'You understand me?'

"Yeah, the hell I can, but don't expect me to reply the same way."

'I suppose that makes you a Half.'

"Whatever," Tenka said, releasing the grip on the sword, "What I want to know is what you are doing here."

'...'

"Lemme guess. Sightseeing?'

'I'm not that macabre.'

"Scrounging for food?"

The young man pulled something out of his pocket, unwrapped a pink gum ball and put it in his mouth. The wrap disappeared into one of his pockets.

'Not hungry,' he said while he chewed. 'Also, I prefer to eat Sura. No thank you.'

Tenka stared at the guy. This Sura was... annoyingly... boring. He wasn't even interested in putting up a fight.

'If you must know, this was done to anger me,' the red-eyed Sura said, 'and it will continue until one of us dies.'

He didn't exactly explain who 'us' was, so Tenka could only stare at him. Bugger, this meant that more villages would fall victim to this.

'Also, I'm indifferent to classes. In fact I resent those who make an issue of it. That's why this village was burned down.'

_Chew chew._

Great, these things were happening, because someone wanted to anger this Rakshasa. It sounded like a childish game. Tenka felt a headache coming up. His incessant chewing made Tenka uneasy as well.

"Well, what are you doing about it?"

'Finding someone who can help me destroy him.'

"The dude who calls himself Somos?"

Somos was a name that was often heard from intelligence regarding Half-hunters. He was one of the top guys when it came to Half trade. It wouldn't surprise Tenka if that guy was responsible, as he's known for effectively seeking out villages and burning them down. These days he kept a low profile though.

'Somos?' the Sura yawned. 'That's a small fry.'

Right, Somos was a mere quarter, and this guy could probably beat him to hell if he wanted.

'Who I'm up against is Unkai, a Nastika of the A-'

Tenka stopped listening when he heard the word 'Nastika'. He could probably survive a Rakshasa's attack, but killing a Nastika was a different story even if they were weaker in the Human realm. By the way, what the hell are all those superior Sura's doing in the Human realm?

Wait a minute...

"Okay so um... are you an Upani or a Rakshasa?"

'Rakshasa,' he replied immediately. It didn't look like he was lying.

Tenka sweated bullets. Here he was talking to a Rakshasa, who had trouble with a Nastika of all things. He was about to turn his back, find Baram and then get the hell out of here.

"I'm really sorry dude, but I can't help you with your problem. Well, I wish you the best of luck."

The other frowned.

'Did it look like I was asking you? You're completely useless unless you can talk a god into helping me. Now _that_ would help.'

Not a chance! Tenka thought. Calling a god was a big deal and he knew he couldn't do that.

The Sura blew up whatever he had in his mouth. It was pink and round. Tenka stared at the scene unfolding before him.

"D-Dude, is that bubblegum?" He asked.

'Yep.'

"I didn't know Sura had bubblegum."

'Well, not exactly...' he replied, 'I just like the taste of strawberry mint.'

The red-haired man was rendered speechless.

'Is there something wrong with that?'

"N-no."

The dude's not normal, Tenka thought. Aren't Sura carnivorous?!

The Sura continued speaking, 'This is a very special bubblegum. It cleanses your teeth and then proceeds to cleanse itself after you take the gum out. I like the freshness that comes after it.'

"Oh really?" Tenka thought the Sura was starting to sound like a dental health TV commercial.

'Want a piece of it?' The Sura took it out of his mouth and offered a sliced portion of the chewing gum.

"...no thanks... Sharing used bubblegum is kind of gross, you know?" Tenka said as he watched the chewed gum pieces automatically turned into neon pink bubble gum balls.

At this point Baram returned to the village overhearing Tenka talking to someone. Did Sophia catch up on them? the boy wondered.

"Tenka, it took a little long. There was some fire over there so I've..."

"Gah!" The older man freaked out at the boy's sudden appearance. "By gods! I'm busy talking with this important guy about important stuff! Can't you see!?"

Baram stared. He didn't see anybody.

"Aren't you imagining things?" the boy said with a very straight face.

"Huh? Where he'd go?" Tenka was baffled at the sudden disappearance.

"Stop talking to yourself," Baram sighed, "Can we go now? I get sick of looking at this."

"I wasn't talking to myself. There was this Sura dude who told me he had issues with some Nastika! It's completely related and important!"

"Yeah right."

"Why won't you believe me?" Tenka cried when the expression of unbelief crossed over the boy's face. Baram was 60 years younger than him and looked down on Tenka as if he was a little kid.

"Because... Sharing used bubblegum is kind of gross, you know?" Baram repeated with a deadpan face.

(o)~(o)

Before he confronted Nanase he had knocked out a group of hunters, that consisted presumably of the underlings of the blonde man, with a bolt of lightning. After they had recovered, the group took the man and woman Gene had defeated and left with their loot. Gene with the dagger still in his hand watched as they left. The dagger was ironically one he recognized from a long time ago. What did the girl say about where he was stabbed? She couldn't have known about him or possibly recognised him... so the only other option was that she knew his twin brother.

Gene shook his head, put the weapon in the inside pocket of his jacket and started to ponder over his current situation. He was totally worn out from fighting Nanase and knew it would be hard to take the unconscious girl on his back to the nearest settlement outside the forest. Therefore he decided to rest for a while, and wait if any help came for the girl. He had conveniently hidden himself from being seen with his last Hoti Chandra (he had lied to Nanase about his spamming ability), but it was Mai he was worried for. This time he had left her visible for all to see. Nobody came for a while, but Gene almost mistook a Sura, who happened to pass by, for a human. The Sura saw the girl (he skipped a heartbeat right there), but looked rather disinterested and walked away (he thanked the gods).

Then those three came. One Half and two magicians. Gene could finally sigh of relief and slip away after the magician left with the girl. He followed them out of the forest and into the city without being seen. One of his dad's friends had manufactured a false identification card for him and there he easily passed through the gate with no suspicion.

First, he needed a nice place to stay and to operate from, but everywhere he looked the prices were so incredibly high. He walked around the whole place trying to bargain some establishments into lower prices, flirting with the female cashiers to get himself a place for cheap price, but he couldn't convince anyone into offering him something good _and_ cheap. They all said these were reasonable prices. Gene couldn't believe he had to shell out at least 3 gold coins for a decent room. So the search went on.

He passed an alleyway near the busy streets.

"Whoa, did you see that girl! She looked terrible. I offered her some help with her ruined clothes, but she wouldn't let me."

That caught his attention. A bespectacled young man outside a hotel spoke to a tall man with dirty blonde hair. Gene stood with his back against them, trying to look very interested at the curry mushrooms that were sold at a stand outside.

"Yasuhara, that's not how we talk about customers," the man scolded him.

The other pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Don't you find it strange that she is usually neat and rather stylish, but now... I think she's lost her composure."

"Really? I don't remember."

"Ha! That's why you'll never get a girlfriend, Takigawa."

The face of the man called Takigawa reddened instantly and it seemed as if he was about to explode.

"Don't say that!"

"Let's not act like that in front of the hostel, my dear friend."

"Shut it. Yeah, break is over. Let's get back to work."

The two disappeared into the hostel. Gene stared at the prices in front of the window and thought for millionth time that the prices were outrageous. He was about to leave, but his eyes fell on a white paper next to it.

A job ad?

"Cleaner needed. Will clean all of the hostel rooms and public areas in the mornings. Responsible for replenishing amenities. Must be friendly and neat. Will be working in a small team. We aim to deliver the guests an excellent experience during their stay. Previous experience is not essential. Pay is good. Ask Takigawa or Yasuhara for the details."

The wheels in Gene's mind started to spin... Forgot about the hotel room. Yes, he needed a place to live in, but first of all he had to make sure he gets a job.

* * *

**A very short guide on Sura**

Sura are immortal creatures that originally take on an animal-like form, but some are also able to take a human form.

There are 8 clans of Sura that have distinct biological differences (Garuda clan = birds, Ananta clan = serpentine, Kinnara clan = horses, "Chaos" clan = unspecified, etc). Each clan has a king, which is often the strongest Nastika of that clan. The names of the clans are derived from the clan's first kings.

_Nastika_: Created in the beginning of the universe. They have no parents. The most powerful kind of Sura. The only kind Sura that do not need telepathy to communicate.

_Rakshasa_: Children of Nastika. Born in human form and undergo five stages of growth. They can change into the animal 'Sura' form at any stage.

_Upani_: Children of Rakshasa. Also can undergo five stages of growth, but are born in Sura form. They can do a human transformation after the third stage.

_Mara_: Children of Upani. The weakest kind of Sura. They cannot take a human form.

_Half_: A child between a human and a Sura. A half's power can range from as strong as a Rakshasa to weak like a Mara. Always shows traits from the Sura parent's clan. They cannot use magic like pure humans or Quarters (those with less than 50% Sura blood).

(o)~(o)

**Author's notes**

The Rakshasa Sura in this chapter is Yakumo from Psychic Detective Yakumo. I gave his story a little twist! Yasuhara and Takigawa also made their appearance. Lin, John and Madoka will make theirs in the next chapter. Naru and Mai will return as well. Look forward to Sunday!

By the way, there's a link in my profile in case you want to see how Tenka and his friends looks like. Tenka is a Japanese German in Supernatural Investigation Department, so I made him a Half in mine, hehe. The main character Si Mun is the hot Korean police officer with premature white hair, but the focus will be more on Tenka in Idha Etu Yama.

Thanks so much for reading, alerting and reviewing!


	4. Chapter 4: No Answer

**Chapter 4: No Answer**

_He inclined the ladder against the tree near a river and proceeded to install the equipment inside a cavity he made. The equipment he had requested was made in Kalibloom and arrived less than a month ago. The devices were specially made to be positioned in trees, therefore it was a perfect camouflage against Sura and other unsuspecting forest visitors. To top it off, only he knew where they were installed and taking them out of the trees would require a special code which only he could know. Installation took roughly an hour and within that time period Sura would stare at him and sniff whether he smelled tasty. Or they would just attack him, period. That was the reason he took over two weeks to do everything. He was fatigued from working so hard and rather upset his schedule got messed up. Not to mention Lin and Madoka would probably scold him once they got back. They would never have allowed this if they knew what he was doing._

_When the last equipment had been installed, he stepped down from the ladder and saw her, the first person he had seen in two weeks._

_A short girl with cropped brown hair, wearing a green shirt, a skirt and a string bag. _

(o)~(o)

"Madoka-sunbae, the guild has informed us he is awake."

"Ah, just a minute Lin. I'm coming."

Lin waited outside the door of her office as she prepared to leave.

Just this afternoon they had heard from the Sura Intelligence Department that their unit finally found Noll Enma, otherwise also known as Naru in familiar context. Naru had disappeared from their eyes more than a half month ago and told them in a letter he would be back in a week, not mentioning what he intended to do or where he had gone. He did not return in the specified time frame. Although they trusted Naru's capability to stay alive, Madoka became worried enough to get some outside help. After all, Madoka was swamped with work of her own and Lin had a demanding fiancée to take care of and a rather time consuming job as a teacher. So they told the more than capable SID unit to keep an eye on him - if possible, actively search for him.

Naru was found in a dire condition in the forest, but thankfully alive. He was found stabbed and some vital parts were hit. The leader of the SID unit, Sophia, cast a healing spell on him so that he would at least survive a trip to back the city - ironically known as the City of Death. Then he was brought to the healing magic guild.

When they visited, the boy was sitting up in his bed and looked as if nothing happened. Paperwork was strewn all over and his camping gear was tucked into a corner of his room. Madoka ran over to the boy and gave him hug like only she could do. Naru looked rather awkward in that position.

"Sunbae, he might still be in pain," Lin said.

"Oh!"

After Madoka released him, Naru shook his head.

"I'm tired, but I have healed perfectly."

"Oh then you must thank Ayako," Madoka said, "Have you done that already?"

Ayako was the head of the healing magic guild. They knew her from the Tea Bar as an irregular visitor.

"Yes," Naru replied with his eyebrow twitching. He wished Madoka would stop mothering him.

"It looks like you're fine, so explain to us what happened," Lin said, sitting in a chair next to him.

Naru sighed.

In short he recounted his story from the start of his disappearance. He went on a trip to the forest and intended to stay there for a week at most. Mostly he examined the Mara-level Sura and Upani-level Sura. He kept a logbook on what types occurred more than the other and which clans were present. A week had passed and he had found himself in the deep of the forest. Lin knew what had happened from then on. Naru was notorious for taking his sweet time on researching. He was very thorough and meticulous about dissecting Sura and the like, but still, two weeks were exceptionally long. Naru had been hoping to find at least one Sura from the Chaos clan, but he was out of luck. There was nothing of that sort. The majority had been Mara-level Sura and the rumours say that the Chaos clan are after stronger prey. That meant Upani-level and above.

"The amount of Upani-level Sura is notoriously low when compared to the statistics of five years ago," Naru said, "Therefore we can conclude that Chaos clan Sura have moved away from this area."

Madoka had listened carefully to his explanation, while staring at the papers Naru had handed her. "Nastika and Rakshasa are no longer in the Human Realm. Supposedly," she said, "But there are rumours that some may have gotten stranded during the Cataclysm and kept a low profile. Wherever Chaos gathers in great quantity means that _they_ might be present."

Lin would not like to encounter any of those. Those two are the highest level of Sura. Together with the natural and generational gods, Nastika have existed since the beginning of time. Rakshasa were the children of the Nastika. The children of Rakshasa were Upani, and what followed after them were the Mara - the lowest level that did not have a human form.

"The Chaos clan Sura may have wiped out most of the Upani in this area, and then moved away after only Mara was left behind. I could observe one Upani against seven Mara."

That was fortunate, Lin thought.

"Well, Naru... I hope you don't mean that you will have to do this again in five years," Madoka said with a warning smile.

Naru didn't reply and it filled the other two with dread. Fortunately for him, the conversation was interrupted by some knocking on the door. They quickly shuffled the papers in a stack and put it aside.

"Yes?" Madoka said.

One of the nurses opened the door.

"Sophia and Si Mun of Sura Intelligence Department are here."

"Let them in," Naru said.

A tall woman with long blonde hair and her companion entered. Greetings and words of gratitude were exchanged.

"Wow, I'm so happy to meet the people of the Sura Intelligence Department," Madoka beamed, admiring the woman's looks at the same time. "My name is Madoka Aremi, a Sura biologist."

Lin introduced himself as a mathematics teacher.

"It was only a matter of time before we would meet," Sophia replied with an elegant smile, "Our department has been established only as of a couple of months ago. I would be very happy to make acquaintance with those in the field. I have heard Doctor Enma takes a similar interest."

Her soft brown eyes glanced at Naru, who gave a slight nod.

"It's among one of my research topics," he replied, then added, "Given that Madoka Aremi is one of my teachers, it's only natural that I have such an interest."

"I see, so it's due to your teacher's influence..." she said with a smile, then turned to the man with black hair and some premature white hair. "Well then, I will not make my colleague wait. This is Si Mun, a triple Indra magician. He would like to talk to you about your... accident."

"Thank you, Sophia," Si Mun gave a thin smile and immediately addressed Naru. "As you probably know from what the healing magician has said, we found you at the river in the forest... not too far from the city."

"Yes, I was about to head back to the city after doing some research."

"You were reported as missing. How come your stay was extended?"

"I was dissecting Sura and counting the numbers in various areas. It took while."

"I see," Si Mun scribbled it down. "Were you counting the clans?"

"Not in particular, I was counting the ratio of Mara and Upani in the forest."

"Why?"

Lin watched them with curiosity. Si Mun seemed very keen about knowing the details on Naru's little adventure.

"Madoka and I intend to use it as data for a joint research paper on breeding," the younger man replied.

The man looked at Madoka who nodded. The blonde woman leaned against the wall with an unperturbed facial expression. Lin thought this was beginning to look like an interrogation by the police.

"Hmm, all right," Si Mun said, seemingly convinced, "We found you with a stab wound near the river. Can you tell us what happened?"

"I was about to return to my camping gear, and all of sudden I saw a girl I had never seen before coming out of a forest. I was surprised at her presence so I talked to her."

"At what hour did it happen?"

"At noon, I estimate."

"Can you tell us how she looked like?"

Naru closed his eyes for a moment.

"Short, brown hair, brown eyes... slightly tanned. The girl wore a skirt and a green t-shirt. She also had a bag with her."

"What did she say?"

"She made herself known as someone who did not know how to defend herself. Unfortunately I had insulted her to the point of making her want to return where she had come from - the forest. I was resolved to make her stop going."

Si Mun had heard from the rumours that the researcher had quite a personality - a rather unpleasant personality, and it showed in the interview.

"Physically?"

"Yes, I tried not hurt her, but she struggled and to my surprise she stabbed me in panic."

"What kind of weapon did she use?" Sophia asked.

"A dagger," he replied.

"Then she went into the forest?" Si Mun resumed again.

Naru paused for a moment.

"I lost my consciousness quite immediately after being stabbed."

Sophia interrupted again by holding up her hand.

"Doctor Enma, so you did not manage to use a spell to keep her from going?"

"As far as I know, I did not."

Sophia smiled a little.

"What happened to the girl? Did you find her?" Madoka asked them.

"Yes, we found a human girl of the same appearance," Si Mun replied, "We found her in a Half village... I won't give you the specifics, but it was very deep in the forest. The village had been... raided by Half hunters and I can tell you it was not a pretty sight."

"Oh my..." Madoka said holding a hand in front of her opened mouth. "And this girl saw it?"

"I don't think so. It did not seem like she fled village to escape from the hunters so I reckon she must have left before it was invaded," Si Mun said, and asked Naru, "Did the girl say anything about her intentions?"

"The girl said she was running away," Naru replied. "No mention of hunters."

"How is she?"

"She was unconscious when my colleagues found her," Sophia said to Madoka, "And she was wounded. We assume the hunters were still there when she arrived and they found her to be a threat."

"They used an Indra spell on her, but it was not powerful enough to kill her," Si Mun added. As someone with a triple Indra attribute, he knew what kind of wounds would be inflicted on his victims. If anything it seemed as if the user of the spell did not intend to hit the girl.

"Isn't that odd?" This time it was Lin who spoke. "It almost sounds like the village was victimized by a group called Somos."

"Somos... yes, we thought about that. They're known for committing such atrocities without leaving any witness alive - Half or human. The useless remains are lit on fire as if to announce their deeds and wanting to say, 'Look at us. We burned down this Half village, and who knows how many more there are in this area'. Then other Half-hunters flock to that area and wipe out other villages," he said with a stern face, "Although Half-trade and killing Halfs is legal, killing humans is of course a criminal act. Even among people who hate Halfs, there are also a lot who don't support Somos due to crimes against humans."

The room went silent. If Somos was behind the massacre of that Half village, they would have left nobody alive, not even a human. Everything about the incident screamed it was Somos, but why was the girl left alive?

"Then..." Lin broke the silence. "What if someone saved the girl from being killed?"

"That's indeed possible," Sophia said.

"We didn't see anyone else though," her colleague said.

"A Half?" Madoka said.

"Impossible, if anything Halfs tend to stay away due to the Yaksha bones. Somos has collected quite an amount of those. A Half with weakened physical strength would be as helpless as that girl," Sophia replied.

"Of course."

"Ah, time's up Si Mun, we need to go to the girl and see if she's awake," the woman said to Si Mun, and then with a smile she addressed the other three. "Thank you very much for answering our questions. Doctor Enma probably needs to rest as well, so we'll leave it at this. I hope you don't mind, but I might have to contact you again about the girl."

"Of course," Naru said with a thin smile. "Thank you for everything."

Si Mun and Sophia left, after Madoka thanked them again.

They closed the door behind them and walked to the healing magician's office. When they were out of hearing from anybody they conversed again.

"Si Mun, what did you think of them?" Sophia asked with a quiet voice.

He cupped his chin with his fingers and thought about it. After a while he shook his head.

"From the way they answered the questions I was lead to think they were hiding something, but I can't put my finger on why or what."

"Hm, very well. I'll trust you on that," she said.

"What do you mean? Is there something wrong with them?"

"Not all of them. Perhaps you may want to do a history check," Sophia said with a smile. "First, let's see if the girl is ready to tell us something."

Si Mun considered her suggestion for a moment. He mentally noted he would have to go to the magic guild tomorrow to see if there was something interesting to find in the archive.

"But what do we tell miss Ayako about what occurred between Noll Enma and the girl?"

"Nothing," she said, "Unless she confesses to have done that, but I do not expect that to happen."

"...why?"

"I would like for miss Ayako to think of her as girl who needs her help, not as a girl who has stabbed a boy," Sophia said with a sad smile.

"You're too kind for the girl..." Si Mun sighed.

Sophia frowned.

"Do you think she poses any danger? From what we've just heard she hardly qualifies as a magician or a warrior and we found no such weapon on her."

"No, you're right."

"Miss Ayako will surely let us know if she poses a danger to society."

"But then it might be already too late."

"I've profiled miss Ayako. Don't worry, she does have some tricks up her sleeve if worst comes to worst," Sophia said with a wink.

(o)~(o)

Mai had woken up without pain in her body, but there was a constant unrest in her mind. Her memories were jumbled up and she could only vaguely recall what had exactly happened. Her eyes were still closed, as she was still unwilling to see her new reality. She honestly didn't want to face whatever world she would live in. A world without the village, her best friends Michiru and Keiko. Ah yes, that morning she'd left the village without problems, even managed to get through a good deal of the forest without getting into a fight with Sura.

Then she met him, the good looking young man with that awful personality - a true narcissist. Ah, she had to give him a name... She couldn't keep referring him as 'the guy', 'the narcissist' or 'him'. Narcissistic Naru. That fits. What did he say? Stupid. Stupidity. Then he said something about Michiru - she's dead. Then he wouldn't let her go. Panic and fear overcame her. So she stabbed him.

The girl turned in her warm bed and started crying. What if he was dead? It would have been the most pointless death ever. She was so grateful and lucky when he saved her from those people. Nanase and Somos.

_Do you realise now? They were not protecting you from the world. No, they were protecting themselves! You look young, so you might not know, but the Halfs once took away what was precious to humans... and this is how they are being punished._

Could she believe those words? She wanted the dagger, and he wanted her village dead. Somos wanted her dead. Mai had to hide from them. Maybe she couldn't tell anybody about this, or else they'd be in danger.

Her eyes went wide open.

She was in a room, a very clean-looking room with pastel colours that lacked personality. This wasn't her room or anyone's room. Her string bag was next to her. The dagger! Her hand flew to the bag to open it, but the dagger wasn't there! Did Nanase take it away? No, wait... Naru had it. If she didn't have the dagger she couldn't defend herself. To be honest, she didn't want the dagger, but at the same time it was the only thing her parents left behind. Her parents whom she didn't know or even remember. She lost it. She lost them all.

Mai was about to burst into tears again when the door opened. A young man with blonde hair and blue eyes entered. He was a human too. He seemed completely harmless, so she wasn't afraid of him.

"Ah you're awake," he said, smiling sweetly, "Hello there, my name is John. I'm a counsellor. You were brought here in order to help you recover."

She couldn't believe it. Could he actually be a kind human? She didn't know what a counsellor was, but she guessed she would find out soon.

"Do you want me to talk to you?" he asked as if he was threading on needles. "I promise I won't tell anyone else. I will try to help you as much as possible."

He was super kind!

"...yes," she said.

John smiled and sat down on a chair next to the bed.

"Okay, just tell me what you're comfortable telling. If you're not, you can keep it to yourself..."

Mai nodded. Maybe... maybe she should do that.

"How are you doing?"

Feeling completely at a loss at what to say and she suddenly started to cry.

"I... I don't know."

John remained silent and retrieved something from his pocket.

"I'm sorry for crying."

"Don't be," he said, "Here's a tissue."

"Thank you."

Mai took the offered tissue and removed her tears.

"Maybe it's because I don't know anything...," she finally said.

John seemed to sense that she wasn't about to tell him anything.

"If it's too hard for you, we can leave it at this... " he said, "But can you at least tell me your name?"

"Mai, my name is Mai," she said with a smile.

* * *

**Simplified Guide to N0 the year of the Cataclysm (The Great Change)**

The Great Change occurred in the year D1000, which was changed into N0 later. It was a year of disastrous events. Two Primeval Gods, Shiva and Visnu, vanished. Entire planets were destructed during a large scale interracial war involving the Gods, Suras and Humans. In order to end the war Visnu separated the races into three different realms before he left. Gods and Suras can no longer freely access each realm. Notably, the bonds between Gods and Humans have weakened.

**Half discrimination**

Before N0 the Halfs were treated the same as the humans and Quarters. The emotional resonance with the Nastika Kings of their respective clans made the Halfs attack their friends, family and lovers. This is the reason why the Halfs ended up being discriminated and treated like slaves, sold and killed without any remorse from humans. Usually they need a patron to be able to pass the checkpoints of the major cities. Most Halfs refuse this treatment and hide themselves in impenetrable regions, where they build hidden villages.

(o)~(o)

**Author's Notes**

The next one will be uploaded next week, and I promise you it is a great deal of fun. University is about to begin so I doubt I can manage two chapters a week, but the chapters will be a bit longer (around 3500+ rather than 2500-3000 words).

Thanks for reading and following! (Reviews, where are you~?)


	5. Chapter 5: The Hour

**Chapter 5: The Hour**

_He went into the bathroom of a restaurant after eating some of the food there, then cleaned himself up with a change of wardrobe. He was wearing black pants from home and a decent looking white dress shirt he just bought from market. The young man checked himself in the mirror. He thought he looked rather dashing and believed he was sure to make an impression based on looks only, but the ones who would be interviewing him would be men. Therefore people skills were required other than being friendly and charming. He had to work on making an impression. Be self-assured, he thought, clam your nerves. Make sure they wanted him and nobody else. Impress._

_The boy broadly smiled at himself in the mirror, deciding it was time to go. They had better be prepared._

(o)~(o)

**Several hours ago**

Just as they were about to get back to work - read: lounge in the reception area and read newspapers - the phone rang. Takigawa picked up. A woman's voice screamed through the telephone.

"They found him!"

It was Ayako.

"What?"

"Do you hear me?! They found Naru!" Ayako yelled again.

Yasuhara looked up from the newspaper to see Takigawa wincing, but he visibly perked up at the news. At last, the grumpy researcher had returned. The two of them were co-workers at Monk's Budget Hostel. Takigawa was the owner, but Yasuhara was the brain behind the idea. It was a joint effort of them to make money, but to be honest the concept wasn't working so well. There was a lack of guests, and the hostel was decent in every point which includes room quality and breakfast. The hostel was close to one of the main streets, but situated in a not so beautiful alleyway where there was just enough sunlight to make Yasuhara's glasses glint ever so slightly when he sat in the reception area to welcome arriving guests. (What Yasuhara didn't know is that the white glint in his glasses crept out potential guests when they look into the hostel.) Its main selling point was that the price was slightly lower compared to other hotels of the same quality.

"Yeah I hear you... sooo... he's back and well?!" Takigawa yelled back. It was not needed, but he just wanted payback for Ayako for hurting his ears.

"Gosh, stop yelling!"

"Now you know how I feel," he said softly with a tear in his eye.

"What did you say?" Ayako sharply inquired.

"Um, no nothing. How is our grumpy Tea Bar regular?"

The Tea Bar was located in one of the better visited streets and used a highly successful Curry Mushroom Tea formula created by the sisters Chiaki and Taka. When Yasuhara and Takigawa weren't working, they would visit the Tea Bar. It was there they had met Naru and other friends such as the ever serious Lin and chirpy Madoka. Yasuhara's drink of preference was Curry Tea, but Takigawa only purchased the Iced Curry Coffee. Actually it was rather strange how Takigawa went for coffee at the Tea Bar when he could have just easily gone to Rakan's Coffee Corner that was closer to the hotel. The regular visitors of the Tea Bar all suspected he had a thing for one of the girls behind the bar.

"He's back, but it seems he's taken a hit quite badly. He has healed up mostly, so you'll see him around soon "

"That's good to know..." Takigawa said, sighing of relief, "I though we'd never see that grumpy face again when he's offered Curry Tea..."

Although everyone loves it, Naru absolutely detests Curry Tea. It was an even bigger mystery how he could handle being at the Tea Bar, which serves beverages of the Curry kind. Rumour had it that Madoka dragged him along and he made it a habit of coming ever since then. Another person said that he just liked hanging around with them, but Takigawa seriously doubted such an outrageous theory.

"Yeah," Ayako said, "Anyway, I need to hang up now. I need to patch up someone else."

"Good luck with that."

That concluded the phone call.

"He was in the forest, and injured," Takigawa said with a grin while he held out his hand, "Now pay up."

"Aww... There go my well earned 50 gold coins," Yasuhara pouted.

A week ago they had done a small bet on what the reason behind Naru's disappearance could have been. It was propelled by a sudden discussion about Naru's shady business. Takigawa claimed that Naru simply went out to collect data in the forest and lost his way, but Yasuhara made a controversial bet that he was arrested by the magic guild for heresy. Both of them were in agreement that Naru had something to hide regarding his research and it was something not even Lin and Madoka apparently knew about. If anything, his caretakers weren't too happy when he once went over the borderline of what was the accepted theoretical framework.

Yasuhara and Takigawa often discussed with John on how Naru's personality could possibly have developed into the way it is now. The boy was simply unapproachable and the so-called friendship they had with him never went beyond that of all of them being regular Tea Bar visitors. He kept to himself, usually said nothing and when he did open his mouth he made a snide remark about their lack of intelligence. This was refuted by Madoka who said that Naru had always been like that, even in his childhood.

A couple of days before Naru left, he had even hired out a private room in the Tea Bar to do some work and to drink tea. Chiaki had let Naru rent out the small apartment as an office space until the end of the year. Possibly he would be using at as a place to live after he moves out of Lin's place. When hearing that Yasuhara wondered why the girls would let someone as suspicious as Naru stay there. Wasn't it too much of a risk?

(o)~(o)

"Well, John? How was she?" Ayako asked when he entered the lobby. Sitting across her were Sophia and Si Mun of the Sura Intelligence Department.

"She is still in shock," John replied, "I don't think the time is right."

"I understand," Si Mun said, "It seems I was right. She lived in a Half village her whole life and escaped attracting the attention of hunters. Then she went back and saw what happened. Anyone would have been shocked."

Ayako stared hard at the reports in front of her. Noll Enma's file and the girl's file.

"Miss Ayako," Sophia said, "For now I won't be asking her questions, but I do have a favour to ask from you."

The red-headed female crossed her legs and eyed the other woman.

"She needs to be integrated into society and start to live a normal life as much as is possible. Is that what you want to say?" She guessed.

Sophia nodded. "Not only that. Protect her and have her learn how to defend herself as soon as possible."

"What do you mean by that?" John asked.

"I don't know how familiar you are with the name Somos, but I'll tell you this," Si Mun answered, "For some reason she was left alive, and there is a high chance they might come back for her."

"John. Did she tell you her name?" Ayako asked.

"Her name is Mai," John replied, "Also, I tried asking her about birth attributes, but she didn't understand the concept."

"...she wasn't told anything by those Halfs..?"

"I assume they wanted to make sure that she would never get it in her head to turn against them," Si Mun said.

"That's awful..." Ayako said, "Now John, what do we do?"

"I would strongly recommend that Mai needs something else to focus on," John said. "Such as giving her work, having her go into training with a teacher or even have her enrol in the Academy once the time is right."

The four of them contemplated for a while, but Ayako was the first to speak up.

"Right, I had an idea. Do you mind if I become her caretaker and let her live at my place? Obviously I won't be around all the time, but the other two girls could help me with that. What do you think?"

John cupped his chin with a hand,

"Hm, Chiaki and Taka, huh? Yes, I don't think she would mind... it's better to have more people around her so she can make new friends. The more people around, the more who can help and protect her."

"Well, it sounds good to me," Sophia added. "I trust your judgement."

Si Mun nodded.

"Good, then it's settled. I'd rather not leave her alone here, so she will go with me once I go home," Ayako said.

"Thank you very much, we'll leave her in your care," Sophia bowed her head slightly.

When Sophia left with Si Mun, the blonde young man stared at the reports in front of him.

"Um, is this really okay?"

"Of course it's okay. Actually I'm quite excited about her, I will care of her as if she's my child and give her parental advice when needed. Naturally you will remain as her counsellor."

"That's not what I meant..." John said with a nervous smile.

"What?"

"It's in the Tea Bar."

Ayako, Taka, and Chiaki had rented out the entire building and used it as a place to live and to work. On the ground floor there was the Tea Bar and a small apartment that was used for private parties or for other means. The girls lived on the first floor, which had a communal living room, three bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom.

"There's nothing wrong with that. I'll have her sleep in my bedroom. If she wants to she can take it over after I get married," Ayako said as she played with her red curls.

"I see, then it's okay."

John sighed. He thought Ayako had meant that Mai would be using the living space next to the Tea Bar. Of course, the ground floor is rather lonely at night so of course she won't be living there. There won't be any trouble if she uses Ayako's room. Though, he couldn't imagine Ayako sleeping on the couch till the day of her marriage.

"Of course she won't be using my room forever. I've already thought about the future," she said to the young man. "Mai will be in good hands."

(o)~(o)

The alleyway was dark with little lights, so they hadn't expected anyone to come in. Less than an hour ago one of their few customers, an attractive lady with blonde hair in a ponytail, had entered with her clothes ruined. Seemingly in a bad mood, she didn't even look at him when Yasuhara offered some help.

Right now they noticed the door opening. Ready to welcome the potential guest, the two of them stood up. Takigawa was about to say something, when a boy entered with a big and friendly smile. Black hair and blue eyes. The white dress shirt added to the surreality.

"Good evening, I'm looking for Yasuhara and Takigawa," he said with a voice they hadn't heard for nearly half a month. Time had halted. Their brains had momentarily shut down.

Naru was standing in front of the entrance and all kinds of questions ran through Takigawa's head. Wait, what? He didn't recognize them sitting there? Why is he smiling? Why is he wearing white?

They gave no proper response at first, but Yasuhara quickly recovered himself.

"...we're here?" Yasuhara said with a soft voice.

"H-how was your trip?" Takigawa asked returning a forced smile. The boy smiled back.

Were they just smiling at each other? This never happened before! He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Well, I just returned from the forest, and had a bit of an accident here and there, but everything is fine now! Haha!" he laughed it off with a rather silly grin.

He hit his head, he definitely hit his head, the two of them thought.

"Err, I saw your job ad on the window, and I would like to apply as a cleaner," the boy continued, suddenly gesturing with trembling hands.

Naru was nervous?

Their jaws couldn't hang any lower, because even he was starting to look at them funny.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked with his eyes wide in surprise.

Everything about you! Takigawa almost shouted, but Yasuhara cleared his throat.

"I see. You came for that. Let's continue our conversation in the office."

Yasuhara and the boy moved to the red comfy couches in the office behind the reception desk. Keeping his spot at the reception desk, Takigawa felt very uncomfortable when looking at the boy in front of Yasuhara... that was Naru, right? Not only he had amnesia, but he had attained a serious personality shift. Unbelievable. Naru was currently sitting upright and was fiddling his fingers together as if he was nervous.

"How come do you want to work at our place?" Yasuhara asked, with a notepad in hand, getting straight to business. Takigawa thought it was a miracle that he could recover himself so quickly at the situation. After this was over, he'd give the guy a shoulder pat or even give back 25 gold coins.

"Well, I'll be frank and tell you that I was looking for a place to stay and I realized that I didn't enough money to pay rent," he scratched the back of his head.

Naru had been staying with Lin for as long as they could remember. The problem was that Lin will be getting married very soon. Naturally he would seek for a place paid with his own money.

"I wanted a job that doesn't require much paperwork, so I think this would be perfect for me."

"...you don't like paperwork?" Even Yasuhara could not suspense his disbelief.

"I'm more of an action-type of person."

He quit being a researcher?! Takigawa could barely contain his shock.

"...and your previous work was?"

"I worked at a funeral parlour."

This time it was Yasuhara who looked a little aghast for a short moment.

"It was a very respectable place," Naru said with serious eyes. This time Yasuhara got a little scared by his sombre expression. Okay, this was more like him...

"...ah yes, this must be a bit of a change then. As we said in the job ad, experience is not needed, but it might give us a better idea of who you are," Yasuhara said, "Can tell us what you expect from the job?"

Naru seemed to have blanked out for a moment, because he started fiddling with his fingers again.

"Uh, I think working in a hotel would be awesome as hell... and I think it would be pretty cool to work with you guys. I love being around people and getting to know them well. I am a very dynamic and positive person and open to new ideas or job openings in your place," he rambled on with a stupid smile on his face, then made a sudden sound in surprise and then scratched his head again, "Oh I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Narumi Sanuki, I'm so nervous, so sorry about that."

His apology flew over their heads, because they hadn't even considered asking for his name. Takigawa's face had turned several shades of white in a matter of minutes. The other had stopped writing on his notepad halfway through the monologue. Naru was looking very nervous right now, but it wasn't due to their behaviour.

"Ah!" Yasuhara exclaimed as if having a sudden rush of enlightenment. Takigawa almost jumped out of his skin.

"Oh my~ I think I need to plot behind the scenes with our dear director. You see, I'm the scriptwriter and I just thought of a great idea for you, you alone. Excuse us for a moment," he said, grabbed Takigawa by the collar and dragged him somewhere to where the young man couldn't hear them. When Yasuhara had looked back, the boy looked rather confused at their sudden take of leave.

"What was _that_ just now?" Takigawa yelled at him when they finally closed the door of the office's bathroom. "That's not the Naru we know!"

"Sssh," Yasuhara said, contemplating the situation, "I know that much."

"I think we should call Ayako and tell her there's all kinds of things wrong with the guy!" Takigawa said, throwing up his arms and gesturing widly . "In the span of five minutes he hasn't talked down to me, did not smirk or act like a smartass. Now he's friendly and humble, smiley and uses un-Naru-like vocabulary! I mean, have you ever heard Naru say awesome or cool?"

"Well, pretty much, no," Yasuhara said, putting his glasses up on the bridge of his nose.

"Yasuhara, he wears white. We need to send him to an asylum," the older man declared.

"That's going a little too far, Takigawa," he replied, and started to poke at the large mirror in the bathroom, "What if he's a twin brother?"

The other crossed his arms.

"No way, man. When one of the girls asked him whether he had a siblings, he said no."

"What if he's a long lost twin brother Naru is at odds with?"

"I'd say that our look-a-like would be the one at odds with Naru, considering his... personality," Takigawa said, "This guy is totally spotless."

"Hm, true, but not impossible," he said, and then proposed, "What if he's a long lost twin brother separated at birth? Something even Naru wouldn't know about?"

"Yeah right, let me say this first, Yasuhara," Takigawa began, "Why would this twin brother suddenly show up in the city on the same day his brother has returned? What's the chance of that? You know your maths better than I do."

"True, then... if he's not twin brother, it has to be Naru himself. He did say he came from the forest and had a few accidents, which is indeed what must have happened to Naru. In the process he must have lost most of his memory and personality due to... a trauma to the head."

Takigawa nodded along, so Yasuhara continued.

"Naru... is someone that has a secretive and rather questionable past and therefore decides to renew himself. One day he decides to go for soul searching in the forest-"

The other stared at him with a deep frown.

"Ah... he wouldn't do that. Let me revise," he cleared his throat again, "He hits his head and gets his brain jumbled up. Now we have White Naru, who is innocent, friendly, cooperative, and does not know us yet, but apparently can use some knowledge of the other, such as finding our hostel. On the other hand, we have the repressed Black Naru, who we both know from earlier encounters; a cold and unfriendly to the bone. Two different personalities in one body."

"I can get behind that."

"Third theory. A doppelgänger who uses magic to look like Naru. Which guy wouldn't want to look like Naru?" Yasuhara threw up his hands.

"And make Naru look good? Hahahaha!" Takigawa laughed and then gave him a hard stare, "No."

"You could make our look-a-like wash toilets and use it as blackmail for the real Naru,"

"Actually, I'd like to see that. Except for the blackmail," Takigawa grinned.

"Naturally," Yasuhara sighed. "Well, how would you rank the theories?"

"Other personality theory comes first. Long lost twin brother is impossible, even the doppelgänger theory sounds less far-fetched."

"I have a slightly different opinion, but let's go with what you think it is."

"So what do we do now?"

"Leave it to me," Yasuhara smiled, opening the door, "I have a plan cooked up. We've made him wait long enough."

"Fine," Takigawa said, "I could never handle a situation like this."

"Hm, as an apology for waiting could you offer him a drink? I don't want to make him think I'm running this show."

Takigawa's jaw dropped. "That's not making it any better!"

"Just do it and be yourself," the other said.

They had returned to the office and the look-a-like was still sitting there.

"Sorry for making you wait~ We had something important to discuss."

"Oh I really don't mind," the young man said. There was not a hint of distrust in his eyes.

"Uhh, Na-Naru, I mean uh, Narumi was it? Would you like to drink something?" Takigawa stuttered. Damn, he really messed up his line.

The boy smiled.

"Ah, what do you have? And use Naru if you like, that's how I'm usually called."

Both guys almost sighed of relief. That's easier.

"Curry soda and iced tea in the fridge, but if that's not what you want I can boil some water to make tea. So you want tea, right? Right tea, it is," Takigawa babbled on.

"Actually I'd like to try some Curry soda. I haven't had that before."

Takigawa was about to head to the kitchen to boil some water.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?"

"Naru wants Curry soda, Takigawa," Yasuhara said flatly.

"Not iced tea?"

"Curry soda," the two said to Takigawa. One with a smile and another with a strained face.

_But Naru hates Curry soda! He will kill me after this!_ The man thought. Eventually he did retrieve the soda for their Naru, who happily drank it like an excited child. Even Yasuhara was looking at him as if he had seen a ghost.

"Oh man, the taste is so brilliant!" he said with a big smile on his face.

"Yes, it's a new product."

Yasuhara was about to tell him about the Tea Bar's Curry Tea, when he realized that their other friends wouldn't be ready for Naru's new (dominant?) personality. He let the thought slide away, and was very happy that his colleague didn't bring the subject up either. So he moved to the next plan.

"Actually, we have considered to revitalize the image of Monk's Budget Hostel, due to a lack of clients. Currently, there's only two customers staying here. After seeing you, I've had the idea to target... female customers, therefore catering to a niche audience. The two of us are certainly not bad looking, if we say so ourselves, but if you work together with us we could re-brand the hostel... What do you think?"

Naru stared at Yasuhara with big eyes and open mouth. "That would be great! I really like that idea."

"W-well, if the formula is a success, we could get some other guys into this and branch out eventually," Takigawa added, in order not to look like Yasuhara's lackey, "We should provide our clients some variety in eye candy."

The boy's eyes twinkled at him. "That's so smart of you."

Takigawa's jaw dropped slightly. Naru called him smart. It didn't sound like like he was mocking him either. He had decided. He liked this version of Naru better.

"Oh it's nothing," he shrugged off this compliment with a big grin, "In fact, I'd like to see _your_ smarts in use for this business."

Yasuhara thought he was really getting into it.

"Oh yes, I will definitely score a girl or two," Naru joked. The smile had turned into a smirk that was very reminiscent of the other one.

"Welll, I'm sure you do..." Yasuhara winked.

Takigawa never thought he would talk with Naru on the subject of girls, but it actually happened. If anything Naru seemed very interested in the blonde girl who has been spending a few nights at the hotel. Also, his application had been accepted and he would come in tomorrow for his first work day.

They concluded the conversation with another bottle of curry soda, before the young man left. Takigawa thought it was time for an alcoholic drink, when Yasuhara showed him the filled application form.

"Don't you think there's something strange with this?"

"What?" He started reading. "Name: Narumi Sanuki. Month of birth: 9. Day of birth:10. Year of... What, except for the name it does seem about right for him? No?"

"The birth date is identical to grumpy Naru, but check what he wrote down in the attribute section."

"Indra... Kubera... Chandra," Takigawa read, and then realized what the other meant. "Wasn't Naru's..."

"Yes, Naru was born in the month of Indra, on the day of Kubera, and in the hour Asvins," Yasuhara said, "The hour of Asvins comes after the hour of Chandra."

"What... but that means..." He couldn't believe it. No, this was impossible.

"The long lost twin brother theory still stands," Yasuhara said.

(o)~(o)

At last, the day had almost ended.

A nice woman with long red hair named Ayako gave her some food at the healing magic guild. Ayako asked if Mai would like to live at her house to get her adjusted to life in the city. She had happily agreed. A short walk took them to her home above a closed shop. Barely able to keep her eyes open, Mai was too tired to look around her and it was rather dark. She heard that Ayako was living with two other girls, but night had fallen and the other residents were already asleep. She was to take the bed in Ayako's bedroom, while the woman slept on the couch in the living room. Mai had nearly tripped over some clothing on the floor and other objects when she entered the bedroom. The woman apologised for the mess and said that the empty bedroom wasn't ready yet. Mai didn't mind. She was happy to be somewhere where it's safe to sleep.

When she prepared herself to go to sleep, borrowing pyjama's that were too big for her, Mai noticed the calendar on the wall. The year was N15 and they were currently in the eleventh month. Ayako had circled the 35th day and scribbled 'Madoka's birthday' below it. It seemed she also made a habit of crossing off bygone days with a pencil, starting from the 25th day the numbers were left uncrossed.

Today was the 25th day.

Mai took the pencil she found somewhere on the desk and crossed it off.

(o)~(o)

_Marut, the god of Destruction, is the patron of the eleventh month._

_Kali, the goddes of Chaos, is the patron of the 25th day._

_Yama, the god of Death, is the patron of the 12th and 24th hour_

* * *

**Author's Notes**

I would like to note that some aspects of the characters have been changed. They are not Japanese, British or Chinese in the story, so I've changed their names according to the context.

Some family names have become given names (Lin Shiki, Takigawa Hotoke, Yasuhara Rartia, etc). Oliver Davis is Noll Enma, Luella Davis is Ella Enma and Martin Davis is Marty Enma. There are several other changes, but the characters will always be recognizable by the names they're known for in the canon.

The name that is used by Gene in this chapter, Sanuki was inspired by Japanese mythology that involves King Enma, ruler of the underworld. Enma is also known as Yama, the god of death, in Vedic mythology.

There are more aspects that have been played with, but that is for you to discover.

Anyway, I'm so happy to see lots of people sticking around even though the story is probably not one that is very easy to digest. Thanks so much for reading!


	6. Chapter 6: The Beginning

**Chapter 6: The Beginning**

_There he was, in the highest dimension, alone in the infernal hell. It surely was hot, but it was unexpectedly pleasant. Did he come to the wrong place? The boy had expected a long queue of people in front of a gate with pillars of fire, but he had not seen those at all. After some wandering around, he turned around a corner and found a boiling molten metal pool with a sign in front of it. He could not read the sign for it was in a script he had never seen before._

_Not for away from the boiling pool there was a nondescript residence with a man wearing dark loose robes standing in front of it. His long dark brown hair was tied up at the back of his head and his bangs conveniently hid his eyes from being seen from afar. The man seemed to be waiting for someone. Being much shorter, the boy did see those green eyes that softened when he drew closer. Back then he had no idea who he was, so the boy simply asked the question he wanted an answer for. Whoever the man was, he seemed to be important so he had to know something._

_"Sir, I heard my mum and dad are here. Can I see them?"_

_The man didn't answer._

_"Are you listening or do you not speak?"_

_"I'm listening, but answering is not necessary."_

_The man's tone of speaking was very serious, but the voice was not as deep as he had expected._

_"Sir, I want to see my mum and dad. Where are they?"_

_The man avoided his question by asking his own._

_"What about your life?"_

_"I don't care. I just want to see my parents?"_

_The boy was adamant, but the man didn't back down. Their eyes met with the same kind of stubbornness. Green that pierced against blue. For a moment it seemed as if he was looking at the boy's soul._

_He said, "So you don't value life? Is that why you had yourself killed?"_

_The boy shivered. That's not what he wanted to hear._

_"...you know a lot, sir."_

_"Yes, because I will punish you. I don't like that you killed each other."_

_The boy's gaze fell on the ground. He could have seen this coming. This was not a person. This was a god and he could probably read minds._

_"...so what's my punishment?"_

_"Child labour," he said with a little smirk._

_The god seemed to enjoy the sudden horror on the child's face._

_"Hey, you can't do that to me!" he shrieked._

_"I can. This is my domain," the man said, "Death is my domain."_

_The boy trembled a little when he said those words, and gave up on pressing the matter of his parents. Maybe the god would answer his question after his punishment was over._

_"...okay then... what do I do?"_

_"Are you good with paperwork?"_

_The boy frowned a little. Paperwork?_

_"...no, but my brother was?"_

_The man sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose._

_"...I gave your brother the wrong ability," he said with regret in his voice._

_"What about him? What ability?"_

_"So that you will be able to go back, due to your connection to him."_

_"I don't understand."_

_"You will in a short time."_

(o)~(o)

Indeed, time had flown by. Now Gene understood a little what he was talking about, and at the same time he had learned to value life much better than he had before. Though he felt a little out of the place during the time he spent alive so far.

He hated paperwork, but one of the biggest punishment of all was the lack of curry mushrooms in hell. When Kubera, the god of Earth, came by his workplace, Gene had pleaded with him for curry mushrooms. The god would just stare at him as if he were an idiot, so he had been ignored, therefore no curry mushrooms for him. Dad wouldn't help him either. Punishment doesn't come with nice things after all. However, because of those little things, he started to appreciate life much more.

Curry mushrooms also reminded him of his brother.

When they were little, other people could always distinguish them by their hate or love for curry mushrooms. Noll absolutely hated them and he wouldn't even come sit at the dinner table when curry was served. Everyone always laughed, but Noll proceeded to have such a sour face that he scared people away.

(o)~(o)

Si Mun crossed off the 25nd day of Marut on his calendar. Today was the 26th. Another new day with rather depressing names. Month of Marut, god of Destruction. The 26nd day belonged to to Chandra, the deity of Darkness. Si Mun didn't believe it would spell trouble for today, he had gotten enough from yesterday. Though it had been tiring, he was up early even though it was a free day. He felt that not a day should be wasted, especially when there was a lot of work to do.

Aside from working for the magic guild as a normal law officer, he also worked in the Sura Intelligence Department. Together with Sophia and Tenka, they were called to work in this city to provide additional assistance. Be it in defence in the case of a Sura outbreak in the forest, keeping the unrest between Anti-Half activists and Pro-Half activists under control, and more. Sophia didn't tell Si Mun who had enlisted them for this job, but he didn't complain. If it was to help people, he was entirely up for it.

On the other hand, Tenka found it a rather vague job description, but Sophia countered that with the following argument. Even pure humans with a triple attribute may be able to use magic, but will run out of vigour in a long battle. Apparently Tenka did not understand the concept of limited vigour and use of magic. Halfs are not able to use magic, but they were blessed with the long-lasting vigour and powers from their Sura blood. As quarters, Si Mun, Sophia and Baram had the advantage of having some Sura blood and still be able to use magic. When they arrived here, Sophia went to the City's Temple Academy and picked out Baram to join the department.

As fellow officer Hirota once said to him; Being a pure human sucks, especially if you have single attributes. Si Mun didn't think it was true. Although having a triple attribute was nice, he thought it was also good to be well-rounded and have variety. Hirota was very surprised to hear that a human with single attributes belonged to one of the highest ranked magicians. Si Mun had seen the other officer walk away with a pensive expression on his face.

Si Mun read a newspaper that had come in.

A bed alarm went off. It kept going for at least a minute much to his irritation. Groaning could be heard from Tenka's room.

"Damn it, Si Mun! ...why must you.. turn on that noisy... piece of junk!"

_Crack._

Si Mun stood up when he heard the cracking sound, walked to Tenka's room and observed what had happened. His topless friend lay splayed on his bed with the covers below his feet.

"What are you looking at..."

The alarm clock lay shattered on the floor.

"Oops?" Tenka said after he saw the mess he had made.

"Tenka..." Si Mun said his name with a tone of warning. "If this is how you handle your belongings, then why don't I just personally wake you up every morning..."

"Oh no don't you dare, mister Si Mun! You'll kill me one of these days!"

"Then you better by a new one," Si Mun stared at him unamused, before he closed the door.

"Phew," Tenka gave a sigh of relief. "I thought he was going to zap me again~"

"_Bhavati Indra._"

The sound of thunder raged behind the door.

"Yaaargh! NOO~!"

Fifteen minutes later the red-haired man was dressed up and slightly fizzled out. His hair looked even wilder than before.

"Well, _thanks_ for the wake up call," Tenka said, "I've never been more awake."

"You're welcome," Si Mun said without looking at him, drinking his cup of coffee calmly.

After some groaning and cursing Tenka talked to his friend.

"So what are the plans for today?"

"We have a meeting with the others at twelve."

"It's nine in the morning! You could at least have me sleep in!" He whined.

"You have a report to do. You promised."

"Well... shit, that's true."

"Baram is a model student. I can't say the same about you."

"Okay, fine! I'll go to Baram and do the report. I'll grab some food at his place."

"In that case I'm going with you," Si Mun said, "There's something I need to do at the magic guild before the meeting."

"What?"

"Check up on the person we found yesterday."

"The girl?"

"No, the researcher," he replied, "I'm willing to bet that you won't find an iota of information on the girl."

"Hmm, did she tell you something?"

"Sophia? Yeah. Plus I did get a weird feeling after interviewing him."

"Was he lying? He's got no reason to lie, unless he's researching shady things."

Tenka had hit it right on the mark, but that probably wasn't the thing Sophia was trying to tell him about.

"Something along those lines... maybe."

"Okay.. let's get going then."

There was a knock on the door. It was the their neighbour, Kouichi. A thin young man with short brown hair. He happened to work at Baram's dad place, called Rakan's Coffee Corner.

"Oh good morning, Kouichi," Si Mun said with a friendly smile. "What brings you here?"

"I... I was wondering if everything was all right? I heard some noise and some screaming..."

He gave the boy a wry smile.

"That was Tenka."

The red-haired man appeared behind Si Mun.

"I'm totally fine, just got a shocking wake up call from a defective alarm clock," he explained slightly peeved.

Si Mun glared at him. Who was he calling defective?! Tenka ignored him.

"So what's up? We're about to head to the Rakan's. Coming along?" Tenka asked the boy, who shook his head.

"I'm off duty this morning. I'm helping two new female neighbours with moving."

"Oh, are they cute?"

Kouichi stared at Tenka with a frown and Si Mun was starting to get even more irritated at his friend.

"Yes, a cute elderly lady and her daughter," the boy said flatly.

"So about the daughter..." Tenka began with a grin and managed to dodge a hit from Si Mun's elbow.

"Mister Tenka," Kouichi said with a impish grin, turning around and heading outside. "Why don't I just introduce you to her then?"

When they reached outside they indeed saw an elderly lady and a girl, but it looked more like a grandmother and her thirteen year old granddaughter. Tenka paled slightly at the sight and Si Mun chuckled a little.

"See?" Kouichi said, and then called out to the old lady, "Miss Haruka! Let me introduce you to some of your neighbours!"

The lady had a mop of grey short hair and a very kind expression when she turned to look at them. A brown-haired girl followed her with a giant cardboard box, of her face only her dark purple eyes were viewable.

"Ah, good morning. My name is Haruka. Pleased to meet you."

"I'm Si Mun and this is..."

"Tenka."

"Pleased to meet you too."

Tenka didn't say anything, but gave short nod. The girl looked curiously at them, especially at the tall red-haired person.

What a cute daughter, Si Mun thought, and asked, "What's your name?"

Her mother looked expectantly at her. A little shy she put the box down. Black lines like two long tears marked her face. Her mouth revealed a set of sharp teeth. It was then that the two realized the girl was a Half.

"Nao," she said.

"That's a nice name. Don't you think Tenka?" Si Mun said.

"Uhh yeah. Really nice."

He seemed dumbfounded, but the girl just smiled at him.

"Will you be all right with moving?" The law officer said to the old lady.

"Ah yes, Kouichi is such a gentleman. He offered to help us," she replied.

"That's great."

"Are you leaving for work?" The woman asked.

"Ah yes, we can't help you unfortunately," he said with an apologetic face.

"Oh I don't mind. Why don't we have dinner together at my place? Kouichi will be there too."

Si Mun accepted the offer. All the while Tenka barely said anything, and just nodded.

"Tenka, you could have been nicer..." Si Mun said when they left.

"Didn't mean to. Just reminded me of something."

Then he walked ahead. His back seemed rather forlorn compared to the state he was in a few minutes ago.

(o)~(o)

Naru had stayed up almost the whole night on researching the data he had collected and fell asleep at the desk. He was still at the healing magic guild and it was only around noon when Lin visited that he was woken up. The man wasn't exactly happy about him spending the time working when he should be recovering from his trip. Naru thought it was ridiculous. His brain was perfectly fine and Lin made it look like he had lost his mind.

After a short return to their home, Naru wanted to spent his first day in the Temple Academy, but it turned out to be a bad time to be using the library. All seats were filled by students who were preparing for their exams. He couldn't stay here too long. It was noisy, and if he remained... people would start bothering him. Teachers who wanted him to give a guest lecture and the continuous stares and giggles of girls. He didn't mind being praised for his brains or his looks, but after a while it got annoying.

Naru was no longer a student. He had graduated a long time ago from the renowned University of Eloth on planet Willarv with a prestigious scholarship, before he returned to his home planet Isholy. He went on to travel around various cities on Isholy to do his research. At one point he did the magician rank exam, but never bothered to do his best much to his parents' and Madoka's dismay. He wasn't interested in becoming a great magician. Magic was merely a tool in the end. As long as he knew all the tricks there were, there was no need to improve.

About four years ago he returned to where he grew up, the place was nicknamed the City of Death for its many shrines dedicated to Yama the god of Death. Getting to the city safely was much of a hassle, so only good magicians could evade death on the forest path. Naru rather liked the place. It wasn't a big city, but not exactly desolate either.

"Naru."

When he left the library he heard Madoka's voice in front of him. Apparently, she was about to enter the library with a female student. Her face was full of worry.

"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be getting some rest?"

As far as he knew she really was like a mother, but he could never consider her one.

"Can you trust me on taking care of my own body for just once?" Naru asked.

"Naru, you're too reckless," Madoka said. Obviously she disapproved of his little adventure in the woods.

"Fine. I was actually about to show my face to Ella and Marty. I haven't seen them in months," he replied, "Now will you excuse me?"

At hearing the names of his adopted parents, Madoka exhaled deeply.

"You'd better do that. I'm rather busy giving private lessons this week to make you do that."

"I know you would have dragged me to them any time soon, I'm just here to prevent that," he smiled.

"Then stop avoiding and visit them more often. They miss you."

As soon as the female student who was with Madoka gave him the 'starry eyes', Naru left without saying anything back. Although Madoka was not officially a teacher, she offered private lessons to the excelling academy students. She was very much liked and there were even some who petitioned for her to become a teacher at the academy. On the other hand, Lin had less luck... oh well, actually he didn't deserve the pity, Naru thought. At the start of every semester he would say something that enraged about every student in the class, but they wouldn't dare to say it to his stern face. On top of that, he was the mathematics teacher. Most magicians had trouble with maths, but Naru thought it was painfully easy compared to the mathematics courses in Eloth.

He arrived to the dean's office. The secretary quickly got up once he saw Naru's face and alerted the dean. Naru was immediately invited into the office. Ella Enma was the dean of the City Temple Academy.

"I thought you would never come," she said when Naru entered her office. The woman was seated by the window in a magician's robes, holding a framed picture. There was a stack of untouched paperwork on her desk. It seemed like she had been lost in thought for quite a while.

"There was some trouble," he said.

"Yes, I heard from Lin. I'm glad you arrived safely."

She gave him a worn smile. Naru had told Lin not to tell his adopted parents about the stabbing. Otherwise, they would never allow him outside the city again.

"Where is Marty?"

"He's out somewhere teaching a priest candidate."

Naru was surprised. "He's finally found one?"

"Yes, she's a Rindhallow University graduate and still very young. Her name is Masako."

He was slightly impressed.

"A Rindhallow student is a very good choice. They're excellent with death magic," he said. "I've personally seen that when I was there for a while."

She smiled and put the framed photo away. Naru could not see whose photo it was, but he was very certain that it was a picture of her sons. It made him feel uneasy, but he would never let her show that.

"Noll, I need to go in a few minutes, so I can't speak with you for very long," Ella said with a warm smile, "Would you care to join us for dinner instead? We would be delighted to have you come over. The priest candidate has been invited as well. There will be no curry mushrooms."

The woman smiled and Naru complied.

"Of course."

When Naru closed the door behind him, he wondered what he would do until dinner. He didn't feel like going home again when his parents lived near the Academy. The Tea Bar was near his home, even though he desired a precious cup of tea after missing those for weeks. There was only one option left. To pick a good book from the library and read it somewhere where annoying teachers and creepy girls were not corrupting his sight or hearing.

(o)~(o)

Mai woke up and found Ayako working at her desk. The room was entirely filled with light from outside and she could finally see the huge mess Ayako's room was. The colours in her room were just as red as her own hair colour and clothes were strewn all over the place.

"Miss Ayako..?" She said groggily.

"Oh, you're awake. Just call me Ayako, honey," she said, looking back at the girl, "and Mai, did you use this pencil on the calendar?"

She held up the pencil Mai had used last night. Mai peered closely at it.

"Yeah..?"

"This is an eye liner. The pencil you use for writing is over there."

She picked up another pencil from her desk. It didn't look that much different from the other, except from looking a bit sharper on the end.

"But isn't that also a pencil?"

"You don't use it for writing. An eye liner is something for your face. See, you do it like this."

With a mirror Ayako made a line near her eyes.

This didn't make any sense. Why would someone use a pencil on a face? A pencil was a pencil to Mai. She had never heard about any of those things.

"Ahaha, I'm sorry. I didn't know about that," she laughed awkwardly at the woman.

Ayako laughed back.

"Oh I don't mind. I should be saying that. I'm really sorry about my room. It's a total mess and I used to keep it orderly."

"That's not a problem. I'm happy you gave me a bed to sleep in," she said, "I have a question. What are these dresses for?"

A big smile appeared on the woman's face.

"I'm getting married in a couple of months to a really nice guy," Ayako said, "I'll have to introduce you to him."

"Wow, congratulations! What kind of person is he?"

"He's a good person, but you know, when I first met him, I thought he was annoying."

Mai raised an eyebrow.

"How come?"

"Well, he was so quiet and non-communicative. I thought he was being rude, because it really seemed as if I was talking to a wall. I mean, he still is quiet, but I've come to appreciate that side of him more than I did at first."

"Hmm, what made you change your mind?"

"Well, he turned out to be very reliable and wise beyond his years... and oh yeah, and he's a total hunk!" Ayako sighed dreamily.

"So you like the mature types huh."

"Yep~" She said, "What about you, Mai? What's your type?"

Mai thought about it a little.

"I... don't know. There aren't any guys of my age that I've known," she said, "Wait. Actually, I did meet one guy after I left my home."

"Oh, was he handsome?"

"...he was better looking than the older guys in the village?" Mai rolled her eyes.

"Right, you don't have any other references," she said, "But what about John? I mean, he's a guy too."

When she saw Mai's blank face Ayako thought, _Oh, poor John will never get a girlfriend._ It was obvious the mystery man made a lasting impression on her.

"Uh... he's good looking, I guess, but it's different from the other guy," Mai said, "John is super nice though."

"Sooo how different?" She gave the girl a huge grin.

"I did think there was something about him that..." Mai paused, "I can't figure out the right word for it."

Ayako's lips pursed into a smile. "Like... what honey is to bees?"

Mai stared at her with big eyes. "Yeah, something like that!"

This was getting interesting, the red-haired woman thought.

"I see. Well, how was your first meeting with that handsome guy?"

"It... didn't go that well? He thought I was a fool, called me crazy, then he kept calling me stupid for not knowing anything," Mai sighed.

"What a shitty excuse for a man..."

Ayako could only feel her anger boiling as she heard that. That sounded exactly like someone she knew.

Mai giggled. "Well, he didn't turn out to be that bad... he got a bit nicer."

Ayako raised an eyebrow. Or maybe it wasn't _that_ person.

"Oh really? Did you ask for his name?"

"He didn't want to even though I gave him mine."

"You should have hit him."

"I did," she replied with a grimace. Stab him, she almost added.

"Good girl."

Ayako laughed, but Mai could only give her a wry smile. She didn't mean to laugh that incident off.

The woman stood up and went through her big wardrobe.

"Okay, let's find you a good outfit. How about this one? Does it fit you?"

She held up a shimmery red dress that obviously didn't fit her.

"I don't think it will..."

Mai nervously smiled. Secondly, it did not suit her own style. Ayako obviously had another idea, because she ran out of the bedroom.

"Chiaki! Taka! Anyone here? I need your help!"

"I'm here~!" A girl's voice called out.

Mai waited in the bed with her pyjama's still on.

"Perfect! Taka, come up now. The new girl needs a change of clothes."

She heard someone bouncing up the stairs, then a short girl of her age peeked from the door opening.

"Hello, I'm Taka," she said.

"Hi... my name is Mai," Mai said with an apologetic face.

"Would you come with me to take a look at my clothes? You can borrow whatever you like. Unless you prefer Ayako's glossy dresses or Chiaki's baggy pants," the girl said rolling her eyes.

_Oh god, that sounds so bad_, Mai thought. She'd prefer something normal.

She got out of bed and followed Taka into her bedroom to look at the clothes she had. Luckily, they had about the same size and the clothes were quite likeable. Mai picked out a pink shirt and a black skirt. Taka applauded her choices.

"Ayako's clothes are outrageous," Taka said as Mai fit into the clothes, "I doubt any young person would want to wear something outdated like that."

"Hey, I can hear you," the woman spoke from behind the door, "Who are you calling old?"

"Ignore her," Taka winked, "She's just sad she's about to become a housewife."

"Stop sprouting that nonsense, little girl, and don't make me look bad in front of Mai..." Ayako said and started ranting about not becoming a housewife, doing the chores and working like she's doing now.

"Obviously she won't. Her future husband will be the housewife." Taka quietly laughed.

"Hehe, you seem to be getting along," Mai said with a nervous smile, "I heard there was another girl. What's her name again?"

"Ah, that's Chiaki, my sister. The three of us live on this floor. My sister and I tend to the bar downstairs. In fact, she's right there now."

"A bar?"

Mai wondered what a bar was, but was too embarrassed to ask her.

"It's not a bar like... for alcoholic drinks, but for tea."

"Okay, so you make tea?"

"Yeah, we make tea. All sorts of tea, but our speciality is Curry Tea. It's quite popular so our business is doing great," she said with a big grin. "I'll show you around when you're ready."

"Really? I need to bathe first. Thanks for the clothes."

When Mai came downstairs (after she had figured out how to use the shower with the help of Ayako), she found Taka at the bar. Another girl was serving tea for a middle-aged lady, and noticed Mai standing by the door.

"Ah, so you're the new girl?"

The girl had grey hair down to her shoulder with bangs that reached almost her eyelashes. She looked rather pretty.

"Yes, my name is Mai."

"Feel free to have a look around. Would you like to try some tea?"

Mai nodded fervently.

"Chiaki will pour you some tea. Why don't we take a look at the teapots over there. We have tons of different designs," Taka said, taking the girl's arm and dragging her over to a wall full of tea pots and cups of great variety.

"Chiaki, do you have a moment?" Ayako said as she prepared to leave for work, and nudged the younger girl to come closer.

"What is it?'

"Is it possible to give Mai the room?" she whispered.

"Your room?"

"You've seen the state of my room, and I'd rather have Mai sleep somewhere that's not a mess."

Chiaki understood what she was getting at, and frowned deeply.

"Ayako, you do know that _he_ is renting out the room since the beginning of the month?"

"Make him wait until next year when Lin kicks him out. Or have him sleep at his parents' place. I know he's a stubborn brat, but Mai takes priority."

"I don't think he will do that, he has planned to use it... He's not sleeping there yet, but he moved in some of his stuff."

"Research material, right? Look, he doesn't take _me_ seriously, but he does listen to you. Try to work out something."

"All right, fine," Chiaki finally said, "But don't complain if he starts glaring daggers at you."

"Mai will get my room once I pack my bags. Don't worry about it."

Ayako left, leaving Chiaki at the counter, who was lost in thought. How should she explain to Naru about the girl who would be using the room?

* * *

**Guide: Curry Mushrooms**

Rare mushrooms that are yellow of colour. One mushroom can feed up to 500 people. Humans are unable to chew a mushroom, because the size is bigger than the mouth of an average human. For the sake of tea lovers, Taka and Chiaki have invented the Curry flavoured Tea.

PS. The author of Kubera is named Currygom

* * *

**Author's notes**

Here's an extra long chapter. I'm trying to keep it limited between 3500 and 5000 words, and this one almost went beyond the limit. So far I have tried to update my fics around Sundays or Wednesdays, but updates might be limited on only Wednesdays very shortly. I foresee university kicking my ass soon and I can't afford to slack on it. :|

Anyway, the groundwork has been laid for the reunion between Naru and Mai. I can already say it's not in the next chapter, because Masako is due to appear at a dinner with the Enma's and I don't want Mai to steal her spotlight just yet!

As usual, thanks so much for reading!


	7. Chapter 7: Boys & Girls

**Chapter 7: Boys & Girls**

Si Mun thought carefully about what happened in the morning before they left to Rakan's place. He had tried asking Tenka about his past once, but all the replies he got out of the man did not answer his questions. The red head never liked talking about his origin. Si Mun didn't even know what his parents' heritage were, but now he received an inkling of that after they had met Haruka and her Half daughter Nao. He was beginning to understand his reluctance of talking about the past.

After dropping off Tenka at Rakan's Coffee Corner the law officer had arrived in the magic guild's archive. The archive was big, dusty and largely used for cold cases. Several computers were in the centre of the archive that some of his colleagues were currently using. There was someone he needed to check on. During the interview Madoka Aremi and Lin Shiki seemed rather keen on protecting their friend from them. The young scientist Noll Enma who was stabbed after provoking the forest girl Mai, but he gave very little away than Si Mun had normally expected. So he decided to compare the profile of the scientist on the computer with the information he had received from Sophia. He sat down in front of the computer and typed away.

There were a few things that stood out about Doctor Noll Enma.

Firstly, he is the son of the current priest in the city and the current dean of the Temple Academy. However, he was adopted along with his biological twin brother Gene Enma. Their birth parents were unknown. The twins of just a few months old had been abandoned near the home of the Enma couple who no longer had any children.

Si Mun leaned back into the chair. What an interesting history, he thought, and scrolled down to look at the boy's credentials. His education profile was incredible as Si Mun expected. As an extremely gifted child he had been sent to study in Eloth on the planet Willarv and graduated with an A+ in all subjects. However, his magician test was comparatively rather poor to the high standards he had set in academic life.

There wasn't anything sketchy about that though. What was Sophia talking about then? Si Mun checked the birth date again. It was the same as in the profile. Noll Enma was 25 years of age and looked much younger than one would expect from a full human. If he was a quarter he would look to be around 12 or 13, but this guy seemed to be about 17 years old. While it could be considered negligible in some eyes, obviously Noll Enma had some Sura blood in his lineage.

"Si Mun. What are you looking at?" A male said behind his back.

He turned around the see the source of the voice, Hirota, his younger colleague who had been the one to take care of him in his first days at this city's magic guild.

"Hirota, I want to ask something about this. My superior told me to look into this young man."

Hirota peered at the profile and frowned slightly. He pulled away with a strained face. Si Mun recognized that look. He knew more. It would be great if Hirota could tell him more.

"Have you looked at the twin's profile?" he said.

"Not yet..."

Si Mun clicked on the link to Noll Enma's brother. Hirota watched his face grow bleaker by the second. The older brother had no accolades to speak of, but it could be best explained by the fact that the face in the profile's photo was so much younger looking than Noll Enma's. He had died ten years ago. Gene Enma had been found stabbed to death in one of the shrines. There was no other information.

"What is this...? He was killed? Why isn't there any information available on that?" Si Mun asked, staring in disbelief at the screen.

"There is more in the archive, but it's not much," Hirota said, and leaned down to whisper, "Come to Rakan's tonight. I'll tell you more."

(o)~(o)

It was time for Gene's first day of work. The job application interview went great and they had accepted him with open arms. The guys were friendly, but a bit... strange. When they had seen him for the first time, their facial expressions had become very pale as if they had just seen a ghost. Especially the tall guy seemed to switch between losing his composure and spacing out the whole time, even though Gene had thought he was the owner of the place. The guy with glasses was much better at his job though.

In the middle of the job interview they had disappeared to somewhere else. It was then he thought they were having second thoughts about him. Gene had tried to impress them, but for some reason he was so much more nervous than he had expected himself to be. Why did he say 'funeral parlour' anyway? There were so many things that he could have said instead. Gene had lied about having worked in a funeral parlour, but it was the closest thing that could describe what he had doing these past few years without freaking people out. However, all worries flew out of the window when he was met with curry soda. Gene loved everything that had curry mushroom flavour, and curry soda was one of the products he had not tried yet.

He left for work on a sunny morning. His job was to clean all the rooms in the morning, have lunch with the guys, then he was free until late afternoon. Today he had been invited by Yasuhara to work out a plan together with Takigawa on the future of Monk's budget hostel.

Gene was right. This was the best job he could ever ask for, excluding the part where he has to clean toilets. Working with guys of the same age, interacting with people and enjoying curry soda every day was like heaven. He closed the door of the second to last hotel room to be cleaned. The corridor looked too grey for normal hotel interior standards, Gene keenly observed, that was yet another thing to put on the list of upcoming changes. However, he still had to prove himself as a good cleaner before he could climb his way up. The corridor would have to be cleaned by the end of the afternoon, but first he walked over to the last hotel room and knocked on the door. If he was not mistaken, this is where the woman was.

"Cleaning service!"

There was no sound coming from the other side of the door. He hadn't heard of the woman leaving her room.

"I'm coming in," he said as he unlocked the door.

The blonde woman was sitting on the bed. The frightened look on her face told him that they knew each other. It was Nanase, the one who had been chasing after the girl's dagger.

"You seem to have recovered well from yesterday's fight," he noted.

She got off the bed, but had dropped to her knees and was scrambling behind the bed.

"Why are you so scared of me?" Gene asked calmly, closing the door behind him.

"I'm not scared," she snarled, "I don't want to deal with you. Why have you come after me?"

"This is the place where I work. I'm a cleaner. Can I clean your room?" he asked with a smile.

She growled at him. This time her fiery grey eyes were not hidden by a pair of sunglasses.

"Get out."

"I won't. I have a job to do," he said with a charming smile that was completely lost on her. "My boss will scold me."

"I said, get out. I don't care about your boss."

Gene remained at the same spot near the door and contemplated the situation, staring at the apparent fear in her eyes. She was frightened of him for some reason, even though she was far stronger than him. She could have run away, but she hid behind the bed and was unable to move. Gene considered it might be a psychological problem on her side. He turned around to face the door, and locked it with the master key.

"What are you doing?" She yelped.

"I locked the door," he explained as he turned around.

"Open it!" Nanase yelled.

"No," he said, walking over to her huddling figure, "Not until you tell me why your people have massacred the village. Tell me."

"Stop that. Don't come near," she scrambled against the night stand. When he finally stood in front her, he could see her body trembling. The woman had gotten even more pitiful after he had locked the door.

"I won't hurt you. Just answer my questions and I'll leave this room."

"That was not my doing, it was Somos," she said, refusing to even look at him.

Gene frowned.

"Oh, now I remember... you wanted the dagger. You're a weapon hunter and was just using the guy to get that god item."

Nanase didn't respond at all.

"As long as that Somos guy is alive, the girl's safety won't be guaranteed," he continued, "Mine isn't either and the same goes for someone else I know."

"Where is that dagger..."

"Wouldn't you like to know? I don't have it on me if you're curious," he smiled. "I've hidden it somewhere where nobody could find it."

"Get to the point. What are you planning to do with me?"

"I want to make a deal with you. Make sure that Somos doesn't hurt anyone I know before I can kill him, and you'll get the dagger. Help me find him."

"..."

"Do you want to dagger or not?"

She glanced upwards to look into his blue eyes. A shadow was cast over his face at that moment and fear once again washed over her. To her, he looked completely menacing, but the dagger was something she absolutely needed. She had failed at keeping it when she came across this boy who had come from nowhere. The woman had severely underestimated him. She had been trapped and cornered again.

"Yes..."

He smiled at Nanase.

"Good."

"You, you sound so sure about yourself," Nanase said, trying to pull herself together, "A boy like you wants to kill Somos. Have you ever killed someone before?"

"I must have, but I'm not sure about that," he replied, "That... was a long time ago though."

"You're not normal."

Gene knelt down before her and held out a hand. "Neither are you."

She stared at his hand and her gaze travelled to his face. Now that he was on eye-level with her, he seemed more or less friendlier. Nanase grabbed his hand, intending to shake it, but the boy pulled her to her feet instead.

"Wha-what are you doing?"

"Helping you. I can't just leave a guest on the floor after she fell out of her bed."

Gene laughed at her stunned expression.

"Your name is Nanase Sola, right? I've seen it in the hotel reservation book."

"Yes, and you're Gene."

He scrunched his face.

"Well, you have that one over me. I go by the name Narumi Sanuki."

Nanase smiled.

"Really."

"Yes, because I can't use the name Gene at the moment."

"Why?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? If you ask some locals around, you might find out who Gene is."

Nanase looked away. "I don't care about that. I'm only interested in the dagger."

She didn't care about him, Gene wryly smiled at the thought. So much for attracting a woman's attention.

She said, "Can you leave now? I don't know where Somos is, but I assume he'll be the one contacting me for information on the girl's whereabouts."

"So you'll let me know? Great!" he said, and added with a malicious grin, "Also, don't run away, because I'll know where to find you."

Nanase froze for a moment, and sighed.

"I won't... just go already. I'll consider my room cleaned for today."

The boy nodded and walked to the door to unlock it. With a slight bow to her, he left the room.

(o)~(o)

Tenka had only one word to describe the meeting with his colleagues Sophia, Si Mun and Baram: bullshit. They didn't believe anything about his encounter with the bubblegum Rakshasa and his young friend refused to have that part included in the report. He wrote that part of the report anyway in an act of rebellion. It wasn't fair. Si Mun brushed it aside as nonsense much to his irritation. His superior Sophia was no better, she had taken a look at it and giggled to Tenka's fury.

So here he was at an old lady's apartment waiting for the comfort of the day, dinner made by someone else. In the mean while he was sitting by the window, while her Half daughter was drawing in a corner of the room. He hadn't said anything to her and she didn't say anything to him. There was no point in talking to girls.

Si Mun entered the room with steaming plates in his hands.

"Why aren't you helping?" The man said, disapproving of his friend slacking by the window.

"You're active as usual aren't you?" Tenka retorted. "Are you forgetting that we're the guests here?"

"Aren't you considerate?" Si Mun said.

"My my, there's no need to," Haruka said, who had followed after his friend with a bowl of salad, "Nao did enough today and Tenka doesn't seem very well, so let us do this."

Nao grinned.

"Meat!" She shouted. Nao obviously preferred to eat meat over the salad.

"Nao likes to eat meat... how about you mister Tenka?" Haruka asked.

"...I'm fine with anything," he replied.

Haruka gave him a kind smile. She seemed like a great parent in Si Mun's eyes.

Nao dug into the food immediately, while the adults ate quietly at the table.

"By the way, wasn't Kouichi supposed to eat with us?" Tenka asked.

"Ah, I heard that his boss wanted him to come early in the evening," Haruka said. "A coffee shop, wasn't it?"

"Ah yes, the owner is our youngest colleague's father. The family was very helpful with introducing us to the city when we first arrived," Si Mun replied, "I really like this city. It's rather quiet compared to where I'm from."

"Where are you from?"

"Originally from Aeroplateau on Willarv."

A sound of surprise escaped her mouth.

"Oh, so you came all the way to Isholy?"

"That was a long time ago though. My grandmother and my parents settled down in Isholy's City of the Sky shortly after my birth. My grandmother was appointed as its priestess back then."

"What an impressive lady... and you definitely inherited her traits," Haruka said, "How about you mister Tenka?"

"Me?" he pointed at myself, "Well... uhh."

"He doesn't like talking about himself, miss Haruka," Si Mun helpfully added and the man glared.

"Oh! I shouldn't have asked."

"No, really it's okay. I'm not trying to be rude," Tenka said, scratching his head.

"No, I don't mind at all," Haruka said with a sad smile, "It's the same for us..."

"Ah..."

The two men nodded. Nao stared at the adults from behind her bowl, and then took her mother's hand in her own.

"It's okay," she said to mother.

"Really?"

The old woman smiled at the child, giving her a hair ruffle.

"Well, if you say so."

"...if it's uncomfortable for you, we don't need to hear it. We've only just met after all," Si Mun spoke.

"Nao trusts you for some reason. I'm going to trust you too."

Tenka stared at the girl. Did she find out already...? She did look a bit funny at him, as if she knew his little secret.

"Nao's father is a Sura and I'm a pure blood human. You don't hear that often nowadays. So far I have pretended to be Nao's adopted mother to avoid any problems. I had her when I was 22," Haruka said, "We separated though. I had changed and soon I couldn't stand being around him any more. I thought it was best for Nao to be in human society, but after the Cataclysm it doesn't appear to be that way any more... it's hard for her to make friends these days."

"She's still so young..." Tenka said.

"Right? Most Halfs have fled the cities already."

"Well, why don't we become your friends, Nao?" Si Mun said. "Most people I know are friendly toward Halfs. I can introduce you and your mother to them."

Nao smiled in approval.

"Oh, that would be great!" Haruka said, "I would be very grateful. So far it has been very hard to just make friends due to our situation. I'm so glad!"

The two man realized that this was the reason why Kouichi contacted them in the morning. This little family seemed very lonely. They suggested the two to visit Rakan's Coffee Corner as well as the more family friendly Tea Bar with them.

(o)~(o)

"You've done quite well for your first work day," the long haired girl said to Mai.

"Really? I messed up a lot of times though."

"Actually I heard that some visitors liked your blend. Your tea had a certain nuance to it. Care to share the secret?"

The Tea Bar had a Barista's choice on the menu card, which meant that the barista could make any blend of choice out of the available tea leaves.

"Well, I honestly don't know what I did. I just went by the instinct of my nose..." Mai said, scratching her head.

"Your nose?" Chiaki raised an eyebrow. "We usually test out blends by taste before we sell it."

"Oh I see..." Mai said, "I just did it on the go and guessed what the person might like."

The other girl stared. "Wow, I never thought about doing it that way."

"...I thought that it was supposed to happen like that? Did I do it wrong?"

"No not at all! In fact, I think it's a great idea! I should tell Taka about that," she said, opening the door of the apartment, "Anyway, here's the room. It hasn't been used for several weeks, so it might be dusty."

There were boxes everywhere.

"What are those..."

Chiaki sighed. "I wouldn't know. Actually someone's been renting this place to work in, but the bedroom has been left unused."

"He hasn't moved in yet?"

"He shares an apartment with Ayako's fiancé, but he'll be kicked out once they get married."

"So he intends to move in here?"

"Yes, the plan is to give you Ayako's room, after he moves in here. I hope I can arrange it that way."

"Then is it really okay for me to use the bedroom for now?"

Chiaki wryly smiled. She wasn't exactly confident about convincing Naru, but she would have to try. She mentally accused Ayako for doing this to her. Sure, the girl needed help, but involving Naru in this meant trouble. Naru hated invasion of his privacy and if he knew what Ayako was trying to do, then... well, let's exclude Ayako from the equation, she thought, he wouldn't take it seriously if the request came from the red head. On the other hand, Chiaki had found herself at the other spectrum of Naru's tolerance of other people. They had some things in common, so it was much easier to break the ice, so to say. It wasn't by much, but it was something that some people took advantage of. Someone like Ayako for instance.

"I'll handle that. Don't worry," she said. "I need to go back to the bar to help Taka out, so why don't you clean up the place for a while? I'm sure that will be appreciated. Feel free to take a break after you're done."

"Okay, I will."

"Here's the key. Let me know if you need help. I'll call you down when we have dinner."

Chiaki left.

Mai stared at the room. This was the living room of the apartment. It was full of boxes and all kinds of unidentifiable objects. Well, the whole day pretty much consisted of trying to figure out what all the things in the Tea Bar actually did. She had received some weird looks from both the girls when she didn't know how to use the water cooker or... the toilet.

The place didn't look dirty, so she considered it to be clean. There was another door at the back. When she went to open it, she saw a rather spacey bedroom that seemed unused. It would be nice if she could sleep in there. Ayako's bedroom was nice, but... a little too busy for her tastes. She couldn't blame the woman for having such a messy room. Ayako seemed like a busy person and practically didn't bother to clean up, as Taka had told her. Then again, she didn't want Ayako to sleep on the couch for someone like her.

She sighed in exhaustion. Her first day was rather tiring. She hadn't worked that very long, but it had seemed like ages because she was trying to figure out a lot of things at the same time. Mai closed the door and plopped down on the big black sofa. It was so comfortable that she laid down, thinking there wouldn't be anyone bothering her. When would the guy be coming back? She forgot to ask. Apparently he had left on a trip for several weeks without the knowledgde of anyone.

Mai stared at the ceiling. She had to get used to this life quickly and not be a bother to anyone. Plus she had to figure out how to do magic. She remembered the boy that saved her. He seemed to be very confident of his skills, and she had the aspiration to gain mastery over magic, even though she knew little about it now. Hopefully she'll be able to take lessons soon. The girls knew several people who would be able to help Mai out.

She closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep.

(o)~(o)

The letter came by post with an invitation of Marty Enma, the only priest of Death on the planet Isholy. Due to circumstances they had been seeking out new priest candidates on other planets. Isholy was far away. While it was not an urgent call for help and Marty Enma was believed to be more than capable, having graduated from Rindhallow University himself, he was getting older. As it was explained in the letter, there has been a lack of people born with triple death attributes. Masako had heard rumours that there was some kind of taboo on having children be born in the month of Yama. Some incident had occurred many years ago that spurred that kind of belief. She was curious about it.

Masako had lived her whole life on the planet Willarv, had a triple Yama attribute and went on to be educated in the arts of death magic at the renowned University of Rindhallow. She was one of the many, and certainly not the most excellent student. Masako was capable though quite average compared to some of her peers. She heard from from other students that she was also one of the many graduates who received the invitation.

The graduates refused to go for good reasons. They had family and friends in Willarv. The trip to Isholy and to the appointed city was dangerous. Furthermore, there was no incentive in the letter. So why did she go?

She had no family or friends, and doing this could give her a new start.

Masako was the only one dining with Marty Enma and his wife Ella, the dean of the City Academy. She had arrived a couple of days ago on her own. They were impressed by her. In fact a couple of years ago they were expecting someone to come, but for some reason they had not arrived. Further investigation was fruitless concerning the person's whereabouts.

Ella definitely liked her. Apparently she never had a daughter to dote on. Marty kept asking her questions about Rindhallow. He had lived there for a while for his training and kept asking her whether teacher such and such was still around or how the temple priests were doing.

A voice came from behind her. She had not heard the opening and closing of doors.

"I've received word that Rindhallow has been under attack."

She turned her head at the spoken words.

"Under attack?" she questioned.

A boy who seemed to be around her age stood next to her. His blue eyes glanced briefly at her, before he sat down next to Marty Enma.

"Noll, what do you mean?"

"There was a large gathering of Mara and Upani Sura of the Garuda, Gandharva and Yaksha clans," Noll said.

"That's very strange," Marty said.

Masako was shocked. It must have happened right after she had departed to Isholy.

"Are you okay, Masako?" Ella said with a concerned face.

"I'm just hoping everyone is okay..." she said.

The priest sighed, "Let's hope for the best. While it is not easy to summon a god now, I believe that the magicians in Rindhallow are capable enough of defending themselves."

Noll nodded.

"We should hear more in a few days," he said.

They remained silent for a while. Masako glanced curiously at Noll, but looked away after she was caught staring at him.

Marty coughed.

"Masako, this is our son Noll," he said, "Noll, this is the priest candidate."

Son? Ah yes, they did say so, but he didn't look like them at all.

"Pleased to meet you," she said politely.

"Likewise."

"Aren't you a priest candidate as well?"

He shook his head.

"No, I have single attributes and none of them are Yama."

Confusion crossed her face. She had heard that they had a son or sons who had a triple Yama attribute.

"Dear, you're the only priest candidate. We have no other people with a triple Yama attribute," Ella said with a sad smile.

This meant that the City of Death on Isholy had only two persons with a triple Yama attribute, namely Marty Enma and herself.

"It must sound strange to you," Marty said as he sliced up the meat on his plate, "As a Rindhallow student you were surrounded by many triple Yama or Chandra attributes.."

"I see, there are plenty of magicians on Willarv, but I heard it's not the same for Isholy."

"Indeed, that's true. I wonder why sometimes," he replied.

The dinner resumed with talk concerning her life in Willarv and eventually the subject went to Noll, who had been a student at Eloth University. Ella told her that he had been the one of the very few people who passed Professor Rajof's class with an A+. She was impressed. From rumours she heard that the professor was extremely strict and was dubbed 'The Witch of Eloth'. Noll passed with the highest results. After that there was only one other student who matched his scores, the famous A++ Asha Rahiro.

"That's incredible," she said.

Apparently not used to compliments, Noll said nothing.

"If only he would have done his best on the magician test."

"Mother, I'm not interested in being a magician."

"Ah, here it comes... the nutty scientist."

"A scientist?"

That was quite a shame, but then again... he had no triple attributes, so that might have turned him away from pursuing magic.

"Unfortunately for my parents, I have no interest in magic," Noll explained, as if having read her thoughts.

"Ah yes, science, science and tea," Ella winked, "Noll, why don't you show her around the city?"

Noll went rigid and Masako slightly frowned. While handsome and intelligent, he did not seem to be very sociable.

"Why don't you show her the bar you frequent?" Marty said.

A bar? He frequents a bar? Masako frowned once again. He did not seem like the type to do that.

"The Tea Bar, honey. The poor girl doesn't know that much of our city and you seem in wanting of tea. So why not?" Ella said with a smile.

Noll looked at Masako and then to his mother. There seemed to be little choice.

"Very well," he said, "Shall we go now?"

Dinner was over and she was not quite tired yet.

"Yes, of course. I've been resting up since my arrival, but I'd like to see more of the city."

They left the dinner hall and parted with Noll's parents in front of the house. After a few minutes of walking she tried to make a conversation with the quiet boy.

"There is something I'm curious about."

"What is it?"

"Your birth attributes."

"Indra Kubera Asvins," he replied, "My magician rank is A+."

"That's not what I... No, I had actually heard that you had triple Yama attributes."

Noll stopped walking and looked at her.

"That information is wrong," he said.

"The information is from a professor in Rindhallow knew your father very well during his university years. He told me about two sons with triple Yama attributes," Masako said, "Your father had sent him a family picture."

There was a silence between them.

"The professor had not heard from your father in a long time, but he told this to me to reassure me I wasn't the only one."

His face went dark and it was as if his blue eyes pierced right through her. Masako held her breath. Did she say something wrong?

"You're right," he said, looking away, "There were two sons like that, but you should never talk about them in front of my parents."

"There were... Does this mean...?"

He nodded and began to walk again. Masako followed after him, not knowing what to say to him.

* * *

**Author's notes**

Apologies for the long wait. We're still on the second day, but I will be speeding things up very soon. By now most important characters have been introduced. In this chapter Hirota appeared, a character you may know better as Hirota Seigi from the Ghost Hunt sequel manga.

Let me know what you think about the story! I haven't received any reviews after chapter 2, so I'm completely left in the dark as to what the readers think of the story. Although I will keep writing even if I don't get any reviews, I still would really like it if you could share any of your thoughts about the story. Is it still interesting? Too confusing? Am I going to slow? Just say anything what is on your mind.

Thank you!


End file.
